PR1MA 'sick projects' mitigation plan priority of newly appointed chairman

In a Facebook post today, PR1MA's new chairman Datuk Dr Fathul Bari Mat Jahya said it was among the mandates of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, who had asked him to study the issues and problems involving PR1MA housing projects.

"His mandates have caught my attention, among others, to increase affordable homes for the people in line with the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP) which targets 500,000 housing units to help the lower and middle income groups (B40 and M40) respectively.

"Secondly, the prime minister also asked me to look into issues and problems at PR1MA, especially on complaints from buyers related to damage, delays and others to make them a priority," he said.

Effective Nov 12, Fathul Bari was appointed as the new PR1MA chairman, replacing Datuk Seri Dr Shahidan Kassim, who is now the Federal Territories Minister.

According to Fathul Bari, he had arranged visits to all PR1MA housing project sites, which have been categorised as 'sick' and problematic projects based on complaints received in December.

However, he said the scheduled visits have to be postponed as he was tested positive for COVID-19 and currently had to undergo quarantine.

Since its inception, PR1MA had completed almost 25,000 housing units nationwide.

He said a total of 41,613 accummulated complaints were received from January to Nov 30, and 41,561 of them had been acted upon while the remaining 52 complaints are still in the process of being resolved.

Besides, Fathul Bari said the PR1MA Homebuyers Review Committee programme had also held 12 meetings with buyer representatives for nine different residential projects from January to November this year.