No more ‘sick’ projects in Sarawak — Ismail Sabri

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KUCHING: All ‘sick’ projects under the Rural and Regional Development Ministry (KKLW) in Sarawak have been resolved.

This was announced by  minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, who admitted that there were several such projects in the state before.

“When I came here before, I promised the former Chief Minister Tan Sri Datuk Patinggi Adenan Satem to solve all the sick projects in Sarawak. So far, there is no more delayed project now. All of them have been completed,” he told reporters after chairing the Rural Executive Councillors and Minister Coordination Meeting (Mexclub) here yesterday.

Ismail recalled that most of the ‘sick’ projects involved rural electrification. He also revealed that KKLW and the state Ministry of Modernisation of Agriculture, Native Land and Regional Development (Mantred) had formed two joint committees to plan and monitor every project that will be and have been implemented in the state.

He said one of the committees, the working committee, would be jointly chaired by KKLW secretary general and Mantred permanent secretary.

“This committee will meet from time to time to monitor every project that is being implemented to prevent the emergence of any ‘sick’ project and so on,” he said.

Ismail added that another joint committee, the highest committee, would be jointly chaired by the KKLW minister (himself) and Mantred Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas.

He said the committee is to discuss on the proposed projects in Sarawak and their implementation.

“Our first meeting will be held after Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had tabled Budget 2018 end of this month. Once we have known the amount of budget allocated to our ministry, we will discuss on proposed projects to be implemented in Sarawak next year,” he said.

Aside from the briefing on the projects implemented under KKLW for 2017, the meeting also discussed the proposed ‘touch point projects’ for 2018. The ‘touch point projects’ are those that are implemented immediately

and completed within a short time. He said the meeting had also agreed in principle to transfer land where Tadika Kemas were built to the federal Land and Minerals Department director.

“The land where Tadika Kemas in Sarawak were located belong to the state government and the meeting had agreed in principle that premium on these land be paid to the state government,” he said.