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MIRI – The RM50,000 “wooden jetty case” in northern Sarawak, which has drawn substantial criticism on alleged misuse of government funds, is still open for investigation and has not been closed, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has assured.
Its state director Mohammad Zaki Hassan said the agency’s office in Sarawak is still investigating the allegations of misappropriation of funds.
“Sarawak MACC had received an earlier explanation by the state Public Works Department (JKR) that the money was used to buy belian wood to build the jetty.
“However, local villagers are now claiming that only the poles are built using belian wood, not the entire plank walk. They said the rest of the wood is not belian.
“With these new claims from the villagers, we are keeping the case open for further investigation,” he told reporters at a buka puasa event in Kuching yesterday.
The wooden jetty that measures 15 metres in length was constructed at a village called Kg Mutap in Bekenu district in northern Sarawak.
The state JKR last week claimed on its website and in a press statement that the jetty is made of belian wood.
“It was the headman of the kampung who insisted on wanting to use belian wood to build the structure.
“We JKR wanted to use steel as its building material after being allocated a rural transformation project allocation of RM50,000 (by the state government),” the department said.
“However, the headman insisted that belian wood be used. He rejected the proposal to use steel as the building material,” it further claimed.
It had said that the belian wood cost RM9,000 per metre.
“We also took into consideration the costs of the logistical arrangements to send the building materials to the site and the difficult road access and conditions in our budget,” the department said.
Netizens blasted the state JKR for spending so much on such a petty structure.
The jetty was damaged during floods around September last year. The state then approved a RM50,000 allocation to the state JKR to rebuild it.
The money was channelled to the state JKR via a Rural Transformation Project under the ruling Gabungan Parti Sarawak’s (GPS) branch in Bekenu.
Bekenu state assemblyman Rosey Yunus had last week defended the state JKR. “The JKR had given a good explanation on why RM50,000 was spent,” she said.
“It has cleared the air of any doubts and I hope the rakyat will accept the explanation.”
Rosey, who is from the GPS coalition member Parti Pesaka Bumiputra Bersatu, said she hopes that people will not continue to misinterpret the expenditure.
Bekenu is located about 100km south of Miri. – The Vibes, April 17, 2022
