Bung Moktar
KOTA KINABALU (April 14): Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Bung Moktar Radin welcomed the hike in special grants for Sabah under Article 112D of the Federal Constitution.
He said that after 53 years, the matter was never reviewed.
In an announcement yesterday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said that there is an increase by 4.8 times to the special grants for Sabah from RM26.7 million to RM125.6 million this year.
“This is good news for the people of Sabah,” he said.
“And of course we appreciate and are grateful to the Federal Government whereby this increase will allow more development programmes to be implemented for the benefit of the people of Sabah,” he said in a statement.
Bung who is also Works Minister, hopes that the delivery system of the special grants is done systematically and effectively to ensure the funds prepared can be fully utilised for Sabah’s development.
“The increase in the special grants will not be meaningful if our delivery system is still inefficient whereby any decisions or actions require a long time causing development programmes to be stunted,” he said.
He urged that Sabah be given autonomy to manage the fund for the purpose of developing the state.
“Hand over the special grants to the Sabah government, let us manage it for development purpose because locals are more aware of their needs,” he said.
He added that if the Federal government manages the grants by giving them stage by stage, the aspiration to steer the development process in Sabah will not be achieved and hence, will not help Sabah to stop being the poorest state.