Tan refutes Dr Yii’s statement on progress of PSLB

Tan Kai

KUCHING (Jan 30): There are no delays in the progress of the Sungai Sarawak Integrated River Basin Development Project (PLSB), which was based on former Pakatan Harapan (PH) government’s open tender process, says political secretary to the chief minister Tan Kai.

In this regard, he stressed that Bandar Kuching MP Kelvin Yii should not issue a misleading statement about the project being overlooked by the federal and state governments.

He said the information is from the Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID).

He was rebutting the statement made by Yii who called on the State DID together with DAP Sarawak chairman Chong Chieng Jen and Pending assemblywoman Violet Yong recently. Yii had said the project appeared to have been overlooked by the federal and state governments, and that the open tender of these separate flood mitigation projects have been delayed time and again.

“I am disappointed with Yii’s statement in which he purposely never mentioned that such delay was due to changes in project execution method by former PH government,” Tan said.

Tan explained that the RM150 million flood mitigation project was approved by former Barisan Nasional (BN) government in 2017, and Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari had announced the project execution in April 24, 2018.

“However, after the 14th general election, PH took over Putrajaya, this project was switched from Natural Resources and Environmental Ministry to be under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Water, Land and Natural resources, of which PKR MP Dato Dr. Xavier Jayakumar was the minister.

“At that time, former Minister of Local Government and Housing Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian, with assistance from former PKR assemblyman See Chee How, had met with Xavier Jayakumar and urged the the latter to give priority and speed up the process due to the project’s urgency,” he said.

Tan added, however, that the former PH government stayed firm with their stand on the project’s procurement procedure from direct dealing to open tender in project design and valuation.

“Undeniable, open tender is more transparent as compared to direct dealing process, but due to the longer and time consuming process, the expenditure such as workers’ wages, material’s price and so on, will eventually become more costly,” he said.

Tan reiterated that he supported the open tender process but added that there is a need to judge the project’s urgency as well as to prioritise the people’s benefit, to decide the method that can make its completion faster.

“Any delay in a project will lead to increase of cost, at the end, we can’t save any cost nor solving people’s issue,” he said.

PLSB project covers nine project locations including upgrading of drainage along Sarawak General Hospital (SGH), Sg Tabuan, Taman Malihah, Batu Lintang area, the government quarters at Jalan Tun Jugah, Sg Sinjan, Sg Gersik, Kuching-Samarahan Expressway and SK Muara Tuang Samarahan.

from Borneo Post Online https://ift.tt/Lspa2fQo9
via IFTTT