BY ALVERDTEKOSTER ANYAP
KUCHING: State Secretary Datuk Amar Jaul Samion has urged government agencies and departments to not confine themselves to their existing processes.
“Please do not confine yourself to your existing processes or be defensive,” he said when speaking at the workshop on administration of contracts towards project delivery excellence for Sarawak government projects at UCSI Hotel here today, which was officiated by Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Jemut Masing.
“Be open to digest the feedback from other participants and come up with some initiatives to maximise the delivery of ‘healthy projects’ whilst reducing the percentage of ‘delayed/sick projects’.”
He explained that one’s current processes at their department might be best suited to their field of works.
However, he said there must be room for improvement which could be shared with other agencies in order to accelerate project implementation and delivery.
“Being defensive is our worst enemy. Being defensive is not acknowledging our own weaknesses or mistakes, and being defensive means we are unable to improve ourselves because we tend to defend what goes wrong.”
On another matter, Jaul said that the State Executive Council (MMKN) at its meeting in July this year had deliberated on delays in implementation for some development projects.
According to him, the causes of the delays were prolonged procurement time frame in case of projects for retender, lengthy procedures and time taken to terminate poor performing contractors and find new contractors, and interference by locals and payments imposed by private property owners.
In addition, he said that another factor was sometimes contractors awarded with projects did not have the capacity to complete them on schedule, resulting in sub-contracting to other parties which contributed to further delays.
He also advised departments and agencies to improve internal processes to improve performance delivery in their projects.
“We have formed a special task force to cater for all projects in each division, ensuring early intervention in project implementation and to address any problems immediately.”
