See: State govt must ensure RM1-billion allocation given to Sarawak by year-end

KUCHING: The state government is urged to make immediate arrangement with Putrajaya to ensure that the RM1-billion allocation is disbursed to Sarawak by the end of the year.

State PKR vice chairman See Chee How said this is to ensure that there will be no delay in the implementation of projects to repair and rebuild the dilapidated schools in Sarawak, particularly those in the rural areas.

At the same time, the state must strengthen and galvanise its corporate governance by institutionalising stringent and methodical management, work supervision and audit to ensure that funds are spent rightly, he added.

“Though the RM1 billion is not sufficient to rebuild and renovate all the 1,020 dilapidated schools in Sarawak, it is better than what I have hoped for.

“As such, the state government was earlier trying to negotiate with Putrajaya that Sarawak would source for RM300 million to rebuild a number of critically dilapidated schools and that the federal government would repay the state later.

“I’m not saying that Putrajaya is only paying lip service, but the twist from asking Sarawak to self- finance RM300 million for the school rebuilding projects first and bill Putrajaya later though allocating us RM1 billion is simply overwhelming.

“The chief minister and his cabinet colleagues should immediately follow up with Putrajaya to find out when this sum is to be disbursed to Sarawak, and how.

“If the fund is still unavailable, the state should source for funds from the money market and have Putrajaya to guarantee the repayment. To secure the finance is most critical and it must be done in earnest.”

See was speaking at a press conference in his office here yesterday.

“The state government must assure us (people’s representatives) at the coming State Legislative Assembly ( DUN) sitting that there will be no spending or pledging or any form of manipulation of our reserve funds for this RM1 billion that has been allocated to Sarawak.”

He added that the revenue generating capacity of our reserve fund should not be in any fettered as the revenue earned is crucial for our sustained development.

He also said it is a huge challenge for the state to utilise the allocation for the implementation and completion of all the projects to rebuild and repair the identified dilapidated schools in 2018.

“We can do it,” said See, adding that the minister has revealed that 200 schools in dire need of repair and rebuilding had been identified.

See, who is also Batu Lintang assemblyman, said the state must now identify the contractors, the best building construction methodologies ( prefabricated Industrialised Building System ( IBS) or conventional) suitable for each school, project consultant management and technical supervisory staffs, audit and all other aspects of works related to the implementation of the project.

“And I fully agree that the whole of the budgetary allocation must be given to Sarawak and that the state be fully entrusted to call tenders, appoint local contractors to undertake all the works and Sarawakian project consultants to oversee the implementation of the projects.”

He pointed out that the previous arrangement of awarding contracts for rebuilding and renovation of dilapidated schools in Sarawak to Peninsular Malaysia companies, in which as much as 40 per cent of the contract sum were skimmed off by the time the projects were sub- contracted to Sarawakian companies to carry out the actual construction works, should be completely stopped.

“However, we must strengthen and galvanise our corporate governance by institutionalising stringent and methodical management, work supervision and audit to ensure that there is transparency and accountability from the funding to project implementation and timeous delivery of the school projects.

“Sarawak has a proud record of being consistently performing well in the state’s financial management.”