Sabah forms special committee to coordinate federal projects in state

KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah government today agreed to set up a special committee to coordinate and ensure smooth implementation of federal government-funded projects in the state.

Chief Minister Datuk Hajiji Noor said the committee was important in addressing delays in completing projects or ‘sick’ projects, whereby such projects would be a loss to the people in the areas involved.

“I also hope that this committee will be able to identify the issues hampering or delaying the projects towards solving the problems,” he said in a statement, here, today.

He had earlier chaired the virtual meeting of the Sabah State Development Action Council (MTPNg), here.

Hajiji, who is also state Finance Minister, said the committee would be fine-tuned to really be effective in achieving the objectives.

He also urged each of the relevant departments and agencies to take immediate action to solve the arising issues to ensure the completion, as scheduled, of all projects such as the construction of schools and hospitals, as well as rural water and electricity supply projects.

He said delayed development projects that had already been approved would only be a loss to the people while the government could be incurring higher costs.

Meanwhile, Hajiji wants the MTPNg to ensure that the allocations channelled by the federal government could be spent at best for the state’s development.

“We want to ensure the people could benefit from the projects and the issue of allocations having to be returned to the federal government as these have not been spent, will not arise,” he said.

-- BERNAMA