KUCHING: Sarawak Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman Aidel Lariwoo said they could only hold a public hearing over the failed package of the first phase of the Tanjong Manis Water Supply project after getting the direction from the State Legislative Assembly (DUN).
He said the Auditor General (AG) Report on the matter would be in the agenda of the next DUN sitting next month and that it is not right to draw any conclusion on the AG Report until it has been deliberated in the DUN and the public hearing has been held.
“To make assumption public now is not fair to any parties. Standard procedures have to be followed first,” he said when contacted yesterday.
He said that it is up to the Sibu Water Board to gauge if the package had been duly completed.
The State PAC made up of State Legislative Assembly members was at the site of the failed package of Phase 1 of Tanjong Manis Water Supply project in Sibu on Wednesday to get further details over issues surrounding the project.
The other members of the Sarawak PAC are Batu Lintang assemblyman See Chee How, Tanjung Batu assemblyman Chew Chiu Sing, Ngemah assemblyman Alexander Vincent, Batu Kitang assemblyman Lo Khere Chiang, Kabong assemblyman Mohd Che Kadir and Tellian assemblyman Yussibnosh Balo.
All State PAC members were present during the visit and inspection, Aidel said.
The Borneo Post on Aug 7 reported on the Auditor General (AG) Report on the status of the Phase 1 of Tanjong Manis Water Supply project which indicated that it did not achieve its intended objectives.
Out of the eight packages, the first package was not completed on time and also not according to the specifications spelt out in the work agreement.
The failed package was supposed to produce 125 million litres per day of raw water from Sungai Maaw in Sibu for supply to industries and households in Tanjong Manis via the river bank filtration (RBF) system.
“Even though the second to eighth packages have been completed, the tests and certification could not be carried out due to the failure of the first package, resulting in the efficiency of packages two to eight not being assessed, and consequently resulting in the entire Phase 1 of the project operations failing,” said the AG Report then, which had been tabled in the Parliament.
“The management of the project did not achieve its optimum efficiency level as there were discrepancies in the job specifications in contract which did not follow the original design and (there was) no written approval from the enforcement officer for the new design from the contractor,” the report added.
The failure of the project has adversely affected the interest of the Sarawak government to get best return from a total investment of RM902.70 million for it (project), the AG Report stressed.
The report said this compromised the government’s objective of getting the best value from the RM902.70 million spent, including procurement of pipes worth RM12.02 million which exceeded the actual amount needed, leading to possible wastage.
On July 25, 2013, the Sarawak government had approved RM1.06 billion under the provision of the 10th Malaysia Plan and such project was to be financed through government bond.
Sibu Water Board was appointed the implementing agency of the project, with Sarawak’s Utilities Ministry being the project enforcer.