KUCHING: The war of words about grass cutting along federal roads continues as Padawan Municipal Council (MPP) chairman, Lo Khere Chiang, again took Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Deputy Minister, Chong Chieng Jen, to task for his “tantrums”.
Lo, who was amazed that Chong blamed MPP and the state Public Works Department (JKR) for uncut grass along federal roads, said the deputy minister should have checked the facts before speaking.
He claimed that now the public can see how illogical and irresponsible Chong has become by the way he threw a tantrum over the uncut grass which caused him to fork out RM200 of his own money to have some grass cut somewhere.
“I wonder if he is going to do the same for all the federal roads from Kuching to Lawas,” he said, and asked who Chong was trying to fool.
He told Chong that first and foremost, he needed to know who the implementing and monitoring agency is as there are different government agencies responsible for different tasks.
“The council is not responsible for everything. It cannot undertake the services of other government agencies, and it cannot simply spend its funds on works that do not come under its jurisdiction. It is subject to audit and queries from the public accounts committee, PAC,” Lo continued.
“As a federal deputy minister, Chong has access to JKR Malaysia and he should know that there were no allocations for November and December last year.
“As a responsible politician and being part of a federal ministry, he should find out the problem and fix it so that the implementing agency can have the money to do its job.
“The average person on the street does not have access to
information from JKR Malaysia or JKR Sarawak and may be easily fooled by Chong who alleged that JKR Sarawak had overspent the money allocated to it. There was no overspending.
“Chong ought to be conversant with governmental procedures because he is in the government now. I therefore ask him to act responsibly as a federal deputy minister and a parliamentarian and stop trying to pull the wool over the people’s eyes with unfounded accusations,” he said.
