KOTA KINABALU, March 8 — The federal government needs a new approach to planning development for Sabah and Sarawak as only about 38 per cent of the allocations for the two states in the national budget have been used each year.
Sabah Deputy Chief Minister, Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin said among the reasons for this to happen was the long period taken for the open tenders to be implemented, thus making these tenders irrelevant for execution for project implementation during the current period in both states.
The Member of Parliament for Kinabatangan explained that through this process, the project consultants would be appointed and this would take three to six months, before the design phase which would take around a year and usually the projects would start in three and a half years.
“Sabah and Sarawak are large states compared to the others, hence their development allocations cannot be the same (as for the states in the peninsula). We have gone through this for tens of years, so perhaps open tenders are not suitable for us.
“Only a small portion of the over RM5 billion (development allocation for Sabah) has been used and then to be carried forward…..in future another RM5 billion will be announced while only RM1 blllion has been used (in a year). So until when will this situation go on?” he said in a statement, here, today.
Under Budget 2022 tabled by Finance Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz last October 29, RM5.2 billion was allocated for Sabah and RM4.6 billion for the Sarawak.
Bung Moktar, who is also Sabah’s Works Minister, said the matter should be acted upon more seriously as Sabah and Sarawak were still far behind the other states, hence more focus needed be given to balanced development.
“If this is difficult to be implemented, the annual development allocations should be given directly to the Sabah and Sarawak state governments to plan, manage and carry out development, which is their priority,” he added.
Meanwhile, Bung Moktar recorded his appreciation and thanks to the federal government and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob for agreeing to approve Phase One of the Pan Borneo Highway project with 19 packages for Sabah.
“This decision should have been made much earlier as compared to neighbouring Sarawak, its Pan Borneo Highway is almost 85 per cent completed but in Sabah, its Phase One has just started and this is one of constraints for speedier development in Sabah,” he said.
Hence, Bung Moktar wants the federal government to pay serious attention to the provision of allocations for Sabah especially in providing a good road system, where Sabah has been lagging behind. — Bernama
