Baru Bian
KUCHING: The federal government has tackled all the ‘sick’ projects in Sarawak, says Works Minister Baru Bian.
He said although such projects were inherited problems, the federal government wanted all of them to be resolved for the benefit of the people.
Among the ‘sick’ projects in Sarawak, according to him, are the proposed Sri Aman Hospital, proposed access road to Baleh Dam, proposed quarters for an Immigration Post in Ba Kelalan, proposed Semuja Immigration Detention Depot, and the Heritage Trail from Kampung Sungai Bintangor to Kuching Esplanade.
He said some of the delays were due to the incompetency of the contractors and inaccessibility of the rural areas.
“The bottom line is – we are trying to help everyone so that some of the important projects can be completed. We want to help contractors; we want to see how we can help them, what are the main problems that they are facing that have resulted in sick projects.
“For me, as a person who knows the situation in Sarawak very well, I want all the projects that had been approved in Sarawak to be implemented with efficiency and be monitored by our friends in Sarawak,” he told a press conference after chairing the Majlis Tindakan Negeri Sarawak meeting here yesterday.
Baru noted that the problem was that these projects were directly tendered through the respective ministries and not through the Public Works Department (JKR) or Ministry of Works (KKR).
He said upon knowing the causes of the problem, the federal government had decided that all proposed federal-funded projects, including in Sarawak, would be tendered through JKR or KKR.
He assured all that unless the contractors had been proven to be incompetent, the federal government was giving every contractor of the sick projects a second chance to get their works done.
“For those projects that are sick, what we do now is go to the ground to ask and investigate the contractors’ problems. After that, we suggest to them how they should do it.
“What is important, we move forward together with them who are facing real issues and find out the problems. Then we encourage them, help them. But if they do not want to be helped and are not open to our ideas, what can you say.”
“But we are very kind and positive as well so that there is no delay in the projects,” he said.
Baru said the contractors are given a second chance because sometimes they face a problem that could not be avoided.
He cited inaccessibility as an example, saying it would not be easy to bring industrial building system (IBS) materials to rural Sarawak.
However, if the contractors failed because of carelessness, laziness, incompetence or because they did not take things seriously, the federal government had to have a hard look at them and consider the issues seriously, Baru stressed.
Deputy secretary-general of the Ministry of Works (Policy and Development) Dato Abdul Razak Jaafar and state development officer from the Federal Development Office of Sarawak, Mohd Zaki Mahyudin, were also present.