KOTA KINABALU: The federal government should not play politics with federal funds and try to leverage the decision of award of projects and use of the development funds.
Instead it should let Sabah decide on the use of development funds instead of making decisions on extravagant multi-hundreds of million ringgit projects in Putrajaya.
“Without in-depth knowledge of local conditions and requirements, sometimes there are projects which are unnecessary,”said Datuk Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan, STAR Sabah Chief.
Jeffrey (photo) said while there is an urgent need to provide clean treated water, among other things like affordable houses, sanitary and healthcare as well as the sealing of rural roads.
“Sabah does not need RM500 million dams like in Tambatuon and Kaiduan but many small-scale water treatment plants all over Sabah to provide clean treated water especially in the rural and interior regions,” he pointed out.
The Bingkor Assemblyman said more importantly, when entrusted with the management of the funds, the State government can chart Sabah’s own development course to meet local needs and requirements which are very different from those in Malaya.
He also said that it is appropriate that all federal funds be channeled to the state governments regardless whether they are opposition or BN-controlled.
As for development funds meant for Sabah, much of these funds are contributed by oil revenues and other federal taxes from Sabah. In addition, the Sabah State government is controlled and monopolized by Umno.
Taking away the decision on development projects from Putrajaya will reduce the political play by the federal government and Umno as well as reduce corruption at the federal level at the expense of poor quality projects in Sabah.
Jeffrey alleged that all Sabah projects are decided in Putrajaya and given to Umno Malaya cronies and Malayan main contractors.
“By the time these projects are sub-contracted out locally, the cream has been taken leaving only crumbs for Sabah sub-contractors,” he said.
“This corruption is probably the biggest reason why projects are poorly constructed in Sabah due to cutting of corners arising from reduced pricing since the main profits have been creamed off.”
With the award of projects in Sabah, Jeffrey suggested that corruption will be cut down and for the same amount of funds, more and better projects with higher quality can be built in Sabah, not slip-shod and creamed-off cut-corner construction as now.
According to him, Sabah has suffered long enough for the past 49 years with low or non-existent prioritization of Sabah’s development needs which all this while have been decided in Kuala Lumpur without in-depth knowledge of the local conditions.
“The time has come for Sabah to chart and undertake its own development and progress,” he added. Read more
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