KUCHING: Works Minister Baru Bian hopes that all federal government projects that have been distributed to Sarawak would be implemented efficiently and on time.
According to him, until Feb 24 this year, there are six major projects that have yet to be completed under the 11th Malaysia Plan (11MP) for Sarawak.
Among the projects are the new Sri Aman hospital, freshwater prawn breeding centre in Santubong, access road to the Baleh Dam, construction of immigration posts and quarters in Ba’Kelalan, heritage trail development project from Kampung Sungai Bintangor to Kuching Esplanade and the reconstruction of immigration detention depot quarters in Semuja.
Baru stressed this at a press conference after chairing the State Action Council meeting here today.
The meeting aimed to ensure that the implementation of policies, programmes and projects of the federal government would continue to be implemented, coordinated and monitored efficiently and holistically.
“As the federal government, we must implement all the projects that bring benefits to the people.
“What matters now is how we monitor these projects so that they can be completed within their timeframe,” he said.
According to Baru, to overcome these “sick projects” issues, the ministry had gone down to the ground to investigate the contractors’ problems, and then proposed the appropriate actions that they (contractors) needed to do to speed up the projects.
“Some problems were due to incompetency of contractors – they do not have any record of the progress of their projects. We cannot accept such excuses!
“Apart from that, shortage of manpower as well as accessibility to the project areas (especially in rural areas) are the factors that contributed to the project delays.
“We will look into the problems faced by these contractors and identify ways to assist them,” explained Baru.
Touching on the incompetency of contractors, he suggested that all projects be tendered through the Works Ministry (KKR) or the Public Works Department (JKR).
Previously, all federal government projects were channelled and tendered directly through the respective ministry rather than through KKR or JKR.
Meanwhile, commenting on the Pan Borneo project development, Baru said it was still ongoing and he hoped the project would be ready within the given time period.
“So far, the work progress is good despite a slight delay about two to six per cent, but I believe they can complete the project on time,” he noted.
On the ferry problem at Batang Igan, the minister did not elaborate further as he said it was under the responsibility of the Sarawak government.
