Shake-up at Water Dept
KOTA KINABALU: The Ministry of Infrastructure Development has carried out a restructuring of the Sabah Water Department, including appointing a new director and reviewing its district engineers, said its minister, Datuk Peter Anthony.
He said the reputation of the State Water Department has been badly tarnished.
“Bila kita buka air duit keluar (when we open the water, money flows out),” he said, when referring to the leakages at the department during a press conference here yesterday.
As such, Peter said the ministry needs to undertake improvements, including appointing an experienced director capable of saving taxpayers’ money, cutting costs and making profits for the State.
“For instance, we will look into the maintenance of 58 water treatment plants in Sabah, which previously gave rise to much controversy. The previous government had allowed appointed companies to carry out maintenance of water treatment plants without having to fork out capital, while the government was forced to pay up based on the contracts,” Peter said.
According to Peter, the contracts awarded to the companies for the past 20 years had amounted to RM3.7 billion, whereby RM186 million was spent on maintaining the 58 water treatment plants annually.
“This involves such a massive sum that has to be borne by the government,” he revealed.
Peter said he is confident that the restructuring, the reappointments and introduction of new measures on managing water supply could be done in a way that would benefit the State Government.
He also said that the new Sabah Water Department director, Amarjit Singh, would be focusing on tackling the high non-revenue water (NRW) issue in Sabah.
Peter hoped that the department could be revamped in the next six to 12 months.
On another note, he said there had been talks as to why the new Water Department director was not appointed from existing civil servants.
“This is because many of the water engineers were previously under investigation,” Peter said.
He said the MACC was still investigating reports made on lopsided maintenance contracts and the case haf not been resolved to date.
He said the leakages had cost the Sabah Water Department more than RM80 million.
“I would urge the MACC to reopen the files and look into the cases,” he said.
Peter said the new government led by Chief Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Shafie Apdal, was open, inclusive and willing to accept constructive criticism.
He said the department would not only curb leakages at the Water Department, but also to restructure all the departments under the ministry.
“That is my mission as the new Minister of Infrastructure Development,” Peter promised.
Also present were Amarjit and the department’s corporate affairs unit head, Uilina Passon.