Violet Yong said she had been approached by consultancy firms that alleged that the implementing agencies had been very slow in their payments although claims were made in accordance with the stages of payment in the consultancy agreement.
KUCHING (July 29): Pending assemblyman Violet Yong has called on the Sarawak government to promptly pay the professional fees and charges for consultancy services engaged for government development projects.
She said she had been approached by consultancy firms that alleged that the implementing agencies had been very slow in their payments although claims were made in accordance with the stages of payment in the consultancy agreement.
The DAP rep said the delay in payments was a major concern that the state government should look into and address immediately.
“A majority of the engineering consultancy firms in Sarawak are encountering payment delay issues for state government or government-linked company (GLC) projects they are involved in.
“The delay can drag on for more than six months even to a year from the date the claims for payment were made. This issue is mainly due to bureaucracy that causes the slow process of payment approval,” she told a press conference at the DAP headquarters here yesterday.
Yong also claimed that the authorities were slow to finalise the consultancy agreements.
She said she was given to understand that without an executed and stamped agreement, the implementing agency would not allow claims for payments to be submitted by the firm.
She speculated that this was because there was no clause in the consultancy agreement to specify the time frame for the implementing agencies to make the payment after invoices for payments were submitted.
“On one hand, the implementing agencies are relying heavily on the appointed architects, engineers, quantity surveyors for their professional advice and services for the implementation of government projects but on the other hand, payments for work done are not made swiftly.
“As a result, many professional consultancy firms claim that they are facing severe cash flow problems that have affected their overall performance,” she said.
Yong also said, in most cases, the consultancy firms have to personally chase for payments for their work done by calling or going from one department to another.