Datuk Fatimah Abdullah
Minister to raise the issue at coming State Cabinet meeting for discussion
KUCHING: Datuk Fatimah Abdullah will submit a report on ‘sick’ or delayed school projects to the State Cabinet during its meeting on Dec 12.
Fully aware of the seriousness of the issue, Fatimah who has been entrusted with a watching brief on national schools said a report was already in place and that she would table it at the coming cabinet meeting.
“I am fully aware of the issue. It has also been brought up during the just-concluded state assembly sitting. I have a complete list of schools suffering from ‘projek sakit’ (sick projects) and I will submit it for discussion in the coming cabinet meeting.
“Whatever decision made in the meeting will then be a state decision so that later, when we submit our decision to the federal level, it will be from the state government,” she told The Borneo Post yesterday.
The Welfare, Women and Family Development Minister was responding to the 2012 AG Report which stated that out of the 56 school projects in Sarawak, only one was completed on time.
The Third Series of 2012 AG Report said the audit carried out between October last year and March this year found that management of school building projects in the state had not been satisfactory.
It further said between 2008 and last year, 56 out of the 737 school projects were audited.
Among the weaknesses identified was a delay of between 219 and 909 days in the completion of 55 projects worth RM1.05 billion, while construction plans of eight schools did not take into consideration the aspects of safety, suitability and conduciveness.
The report also said quality was found to be below standard and supervision of these projects was unsatisfactory.
The report has full written details on these sick school projects, and pictures have also been taken as evidence of its findings.
The Education Ministry in response to the report received on May 7 this year admitted that construction works of these projects were not satisfactory.
The ministry also admitted that contractors which were identified were only interested in making profit by using sub-standard or low quality building materials and they did not meet the specifications which were stated in the contracts resulting in cracks in buildings and holes in the building floor.