MP proud to show good 2023 report card for Stampin

As at Dec 15 last year, the service centre had disbursed RM2,194,807.95 of its OG allocation, and approved RM1,981,400 of the PMR projects.

Chong Chieng Jen

The RM4.2 million allocated for Stampin parliamentary constituency for Year 2023 has been utilised for various purposes, particularly education, says the MP, Chong Chieng Jen.

He pointed out that like all other parliamentary service centres, Stampin was granted two allocations: the Outright Grant (OG) of RM2.2 million, and the Project Mesra Rakyat (PMR) grant of RM2 million.

“As at Dec 15 last year, the service centre had disbursed RM2,194,807.95 of its OG allocation, and approved RM1,981,400 of the PMR projects.

“The utilisation rate for the constituency allocation by Stampin parliamentary constituency was at 99.4 per cent,” he told a press conference at the state Democratic Action Party (DAP) headquarters here yesterday.

Chong, also the Padungan assemblyman, said the disclosure of the allocation utilisation was in compliance with the principles of accountability and transparency under the Madani Government.

The DAP Sarawak chairman added that under the OG allocation, the service centre received 882 applications of which RM1,078,300 (49.1 per cent) was for education purposes,

RM937,007.95 (42.7 per cent) was for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and charitable activities, and RM179,500 (8.2 per cent) for healthcare purpose.

“For education purposes, among the new programmes that we have carried out is the reward for students who scored good results in their Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) and Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia (STPM) examinations, as well as our Tertiary Education Financial Assistance Fund, which is an annual grant for students from low-income families who are pursuing their studies at local universities,” he said.

For the PMR allocation, Chong said a total of 28 projects successfully secured funding, where RM1,941,400 or 98 per cent were allocated for education purposes, while RM40,000 was for the village development security committees (JKKKs) under his constituency.

“The RM1.94 million allocation was mainly given to schools for the upgrading of their facilities, particularly the purchase of Smart TVs for teachers to facilitate their teaching and to make lessons more interesting for the students especially those in primary schools,” he said.

“We will continue with these programmes and projects this year after we have received allocations from the federal government.”

Chong also said the RM4.2 million allocation covered three state constituencies: Batu Kawah, Batu Kitang and Kota Sentosa.

“If you compared this allocation to that of the ADUNs (assemblymen) of Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), they’re allocated RM9 million for each state constituency annually,” he said.

In this regard, Chong called upon the ADUNs to disclose the utilisation of their constituency’s allocations.

“This is so that the people will know what their elected representatives are using the allocation granted by the government for,” he said.

Chong delivers his report during the press conference at the DAP Sarawak headquarters in Kuching. With him are (from left) his assistants Soo Tien Ren and Sim Kiat Leng, as well as DAP Socialist Youth organising secretary Anthony Chin.