Three state agencies to take over Pan Borneo project

KOTA KINABALU: Three state government departments will be taking over the implementation of the Pan Borneo project in Sabah to prevent leakage of funds, which is believed to be among the main factors for the project to be delayed.

Sabah Infrastructure Development Minister Datuk Peter Anthony said the three agencies – Public Works Department, Finance Ministry and State Economic Planning Unit – were previously not involved in the project implementation.

He said the involvement of these three agencies was also part of the restructuring process.

“I have met Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng twice about the state government’s decision to hand the project over,” he said when inspecting several roads in his constituency of Melalap.

Anthony said the handover would help save some RM1.5bil of the people’s money. The Pan Borneo project is seeing delays allegedly due to missing funds for the project.

Many whose lands are affected by the project are claiming their compensations have yet to be paid.

Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said the Federal Government would be investigating the delay in the project and claims of missing funds.

Works Minister Baru Bian said they would be working closely with Sabah to evaluate the delays.

So far, it was found that three factors contributed to the delay – land acquisition, insufficient construction materials, manpower and machinery, as well as delay in payments.

Baru said they were finding ways to improve and speed up processes without neglecting procedures and the rights of affected landowners.