Sabah urban drainage system fails to meet objectives, causes recurring floods

KOTA KINABALU: The maintenance of the urban drainage system in Sabah has failed to achieve its objectives causing floods to recur, according to the Auditor-General’s Report on Activities Of Federal Ministries/Departments And Management Of Government Companies for 2018 Series 3 released today.

The report said sediments and rubbish that were not removed from the drainage is the cause of the floods.

"This situation is caused by the reduction in the approved allocation resulting in the reduction of the frequency of maintenance work that should be carried out," the report said.

It said unscheduled maintenance work caused by the delay in finding new contractors after the tenure of the previous contractors was terminated, also contributed to the failure in achieving the desired outcome in the maintenance of the urban drainage system.

According to the report, the governance practices of SEDCO Travel Tours Sdn Bhd (STTSB) are also unsatisfactory where it failed to achieve its set income and profit targets as well as key performance indicators (KPIs).

"STTSB's financial position is not stable as it has incurred tax losses for three consecutive years (2016, 2017 and 2018) amounting to RM1.17 million, RM112,258 and RM137,075 respectively," read the report.

--BERNAMA