Sabah expecting over RM200mil from Federal Govt for in disaster relief, says state govt

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah is expecting more than RM200mil from the Federal Government to manage natural disasters, says Datuk Nizam Abu Bakar Titingan.

The state assistant finance minister said earlier this week that the Sabah government had put in a request to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob during the National Disaster Management Committee meeting.

The request was for RM147mil for infrastructure repairs due to floods and RM83mil for Covid-19 expenditures, he said.

He added that the RM18mil presented by the Prime Minister recently was for immediate use, including for Covid-19 management.

The Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia Titingan assemblyman said prior to this, the state Disaster Management Committee had received RM8mil for disaster relief.

He said this following Kota Kinabalu MP Chan Foong Hin’s statement that the allocated funds for disasters and Covid-19 management in Sabah were insufficient and unfair.

The DAP MP had also said that the allocations for Sabah were much less compared to other states, which were many times smaller in size compared to Sabah.

"The Kota Kinabalu MP should have checked his facts first before making comments with ill intent to gain political mileage,” Nizam said.

He said the PM, during his visit to Sabah, had also given assurance that the Federal Government would be giving out more assistance to the state.