Minister says with more money to spend, council expected to deliver quality services
SIBU: The Sibu Municipal Council has been given bigger grants by both the federal and state governments to develop Sibu this year, according to Second Finance Minister Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh.He said the total allocation for the council this year was RM18,786,740 as compared to the RM11 million received in 2009.
Wong, who is also the Minister of Environment and Public Health, urged the council to make good use of the grants, and assured the council that there were still other avenues where it could get financial assistance.
Speaking at the installation of the newly appointed councillors at a hotel here yesterday, Wong said he expected the councillors to give quality, pro-active and efficient services to the people.
He also wanted them to work closely with council staff so as to achieve the council’s mission and the vision.
“Fulfilling the mission and the vision of SMC is crucial so that all grants that had been allocated for various projects would be carried out according to financial procedure and through reasonable spending,” he said.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s slogan – ‘People First, Performance Now’ – would become a reality in Sarawak if all local authorities throughout the state, particularly in Sibu, could give a truthful and appropriate service to the people, added Wong.
He said: “I hope local authorities throughout the state, especially the Sibu Municipal Council, will make sure that ‘People First, Performance Now’ can be realised through the delivery of high quality services to all Malaysians irrespective of their racial and religious background.”
Emphasising the need for the local authorities to practise total transparency and accountability, he said local authorities were entrusted with the duty of serving the people.
“I cannot overemphasise the importance of pursuing measures to enhance total transparency and accountability in delivering our services to the people as a whole,” he reiterated.
The task in the Sibu municipality, according to Wong, is a great challenge to the local authorities as Sibu, as a town, is somewhat physically disadvantaged.
Situated at the confluence of Batang Rajang and Batang Igan, 73 per cent of the land in Sibu is under peat swamp, he noted.
“It is tough having to grapple with the poor soil condition in Sibu,” he said.
Wong added: “However, we have to accept the fact that this is what we have and this is what we must do and we ought to do so within our capability, capacity and with our financial and resource constraints.”
He said creating a physical environment conducive to people going about their daily routine.
On another front, he said it was crucial to create an ecstatic environment through efforts of beautifying and making Sibu town as green and as clean as possible.
In addition of creating a physical environment with the enhancement of ecstatic value of the city, Wong reminded the local authorities that it was equally important to create a hygienic environment.
He said the local authorities had been battling against the five main pandemics – H1N1; hand, foot and mouth disease; dengue; chikungunya; and malaria.
In the past 52 weeks, the state had recorded 4,579 cases of dengue compared to the 1,527 cases in the corresponding period the previous year.
Local authorities were also told to create a friendly economic environment.
Wong said the next three to five years would be a challenging time for Sibu with the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE) being implemented in stages.
He hoped that the private sector would take the advantage of the spin-off effect of SCORE.
The need to create a people-friendly social and political environment, he added.