Burgeoning cost of SICC under close scrutiny of new govt – Shafie

KOTA KINABALU: The cost of the Sabah International Convention Centre (SICC) has ballooned from more than RM400 million to the present RM1.2 billion over the past few years, revealed Chief Minister Datuk Mohd Shafie Apdal.

Shafie said the project, which had gone through five rounds of variation orders, is now one of the items being closely scrutinized by the new government.

He added that the new government had also discovered that the SICC Hotel costs RM200 million whilst the convention centre section costs RM1 billion.

However, the Sabah's new Chief Minister seemed adamant to ensure that the past and future state government's investments in SICC, which had been touted as a white elephant by Sabah folk for years, will not be in vain.

“I think whatever investments that we have made or we are going to make, there must be returns, but we are sure that sort of things have been done in many parts of the country,” said Shafie after delivering his hour-long keynote address at the new government's first state and federal civil servants gathering at the Sabah State Administrative Centre (PPNS) here yesterday.

“We have seen the KLCC, we have seen the PICC, are they making money or not? So that is one of the areas that we need to look into, but it will take a little bit of time for me to digest that, to give a comprehensive kind of approach to ensure that it must be put on the right path.

“Because, if you look at Yayasan Sabah, it was meant to provide social activities to the people at large, down the line. Running a convention centre is not going to be an easy task and it is going to incur a lot of costs, he added.