Sabah CM wants federal projects expedited without further delay

KOTA KINABALU: Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor is not happy with the rate of implementation of federal projects in Sabah.

With 2023 almost at the halfway mark, the Chief Minister issued a strong directive to all department heads and district officers to speed up implementation of such development projects.

Sabah had been allocated RM6.05bil in the National Budget this year, the third highest after the Federal Territories and Selangor.

However, under the Third Rolling Plan of the 12th Malaysia Plan, only 21.61% of the 1,181 projects for Sabah have been implemented.

“With six months to go, I want all department heads and district officers to take note of the issues impeding implementation,” he said when chairing the State Development Action Council meeting at Menara Kinabalu here on Tuesday (June 20).

“Do your best to complete them this year,” he stressed, adding that he wanted a detailed progress report at the next meeting in September.

Towards this end, Hajiji said the state government had proposed the setting up of a trust fund where unused allocation for the year can be kept and used for the coming year.

Datuk Seri Wan Ahmad Dahlan Abdul Aziz, director-general of the Implementation and Coordination Unit in the Prime Minister’s Department, also attended the meeting.

Present were Deputy Chief Ministers Datuk Seri Dr Jeffrey Kitingan, Datuk Seri Dr Joachim Gunsalam and Datuk Shahelmey Yahya as well as state ministers Datuk James Ratib (Community Development and People’s Wellbeing), Datuk Christina Liew (Tourism, Culture and Environment) and Datuk Ellron Angin (Youth and Sports) and State Secretary Datuk Seri Safar Untong.

The meeting was also told that according to MyProjek data, as of June 12, some 141 projects below RM50mil worth a total of RM1.6bil will be delegated to the state government through the Public Works Department (JKR) and Irrigation and Drainage Department.

“In this respect, I urge all State Development Action Council committee members to take heed and do the necessary,” Hajiji said.

“The Prime Minister in his address to the state and federal civil service in February had given six months to see to the efficacy of the move.

“There should be no more excuses of waiting for approval from federal authorities as the reason for projects being delayed.

“The rakyat and the government will be on the losing end if there is a delay in implementing approved projects,” he said.

Hajiji also urged the various department heads and district officers to realise the zero-hardcore poor agenda by the end of this year as propounded by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

“I want all district officers to go down to the ground and verify the details of those categorised as hardcore poor in their respective areas.

"We want their actual status to be recorded,” he said.

The Chief Minister also urged relevant departments weighed down with “sick projects” to terminate non-performing contractors which had hindered the completion of projects.