Rolling plan system for smooth project implementation

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KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah agriculture and food industry ministry will start using the “rolling plan” system to facilitate the smooth implementation of agricultural development projects, particularly high-impact programmes, towards improving the people’s socio-economic well-being.

Datuk Seri Panglima Yahya Hussin

Datuk Seri Panglima Yahya Hussin

Under the new system, an agriculture project can be implemented in two years compared to the previous system, which only allowed the use of allocations for a project for a year.

Under the old system, agriculture projects had to be packaged, which not only caused problems to the implementing agency, but also to target groups, said Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Yahya Hussin.

“The new system is good to avoid delays and problems when implementing an agriculture project within a year.

“For instance, if a project cannot be completed in a year, we can use the allocation  the following year without having to re-apply for the allocation at year-end,” he told reporters after attending the ministry’s monthly assembly.

Earlier, in his speech, Yahya, who is also state Agriculture and Food Industry Minister, said the state government financed 180 agricultural projects costing RM221.9 million last year.

Of the total, RM190.8 million or 86 per cent had been spent so far, he said.

He said the federal government allocated RM183.6 million for agriculture projects last year, with RM132.17 million spent to date.

Pointing out that some projects could not be completed within a set deadline, Yahya said he viewed seriously project delays and failures owing to lax monitoring on contractors in carrying out the projects.

“Project delays or failures will affect the people who are to reap the benefits from government-initiated projects,” he added.

He advised all the ministry’s agencies and departments as well as staff to be focused in their roles as planners and implementors of programmes in the development of agriculture and food industry.

According to Yahya, they must avoid being tied down by red-tape out dated ways of management because the environment in the agriculture sector now was different from the past.

Yahya also urged all his ministry’s officers to go down to the ground more often so that they could monitor and get first hand information about what was happening.

“Don’t just depend solely on the monthly report from the officers in charge because as administrators, it is your responsibility to find out what is happening on the ground.

“This way we will not be trapped in untoward incidents like the recent one in Kota Marudu where padi farmers were unable to plant the crop twice because the contractor appointed by the department to level the land did not carry out the job on time,” he said.

Yahya also announced the ministry’s strategies for 2010 which included increasing the agriculture sector’s competitiveness, increasing contribution of the agriculture sector through value added products, encouraging the usage of modern technologies, getting the involvement of the private sector and producing more entrepreneurs in the agriculture sector with the aim to improve the income of the target group, namely the low-income earners and hardcore poor.

His ministry, according to Yahya had set the outcome of the six Key Results Area (KRA) as well as formulated the strategies to be implemented to achieve the necessary results, among which were for the department and agencies, both federal and state, involved to double their efforts.

The driving force must be a sense of urgency as well as practising professionalism, teamwork and having high integrity, he said adding that they could also adopt the ‘blue ocean strategy’ in their work routine.