Chong assures Pan Borneo Highway project will continue
KUCHING: Sarawakians are assured that construction of the RM16-billion Pan Borneo Highway will continue.
The assurance was made by state Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman and newly elected member of Parliament for Stampin Chong Chieng Jen.
“I would like to reassure al l Sarawakians that the Pan Borneo project will continue despite the change of government,” he told a press conference at DAP headquarters here yesterday.
He, however, said some auditing would be done on the actual implementation of the works and also the appointments of contractors and their sub- contractors who get a fraction of the price although they are the ones actually doing the works.
“Because of that, some review and audit would have to be done.
“For now, I would like to reassure all Sarawakians that Pan Borneo project will continue and so are the other major projects that have been going on in Sarawak,” he said.
Chong, who is also state Democratic Action Party ( DAP) chairman, said like the Pan Borneo project, auditing would also be done on the federalfunded projects in Sarawak.
He noted that the purpose and intent of auditing was to ensure that every single sen spent by the federal government would go to the projects and benefit the people, and not half of it goes to the pockets of the cronies and the other half goes to the project.
Asked if he would be part of the auditing group, he said he was not a qualified auditor.
“The auditing would be done by qualified professionals appointed by PH government.
“The details would be worked out later. For now, we just want to reassure Sarawakians that all the federal-funded projects in the state will continue.”
Chong said the PH government would also expedite the completion of the Pan Borneo project, saying it was a bit slow because payments for contractors doing the actual works were delayed.
“The delay was a result of layers and layers of sub-contractors involved in the projects. This makes it difficult to carry out the project,” he said.
Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii was present at the press conference.