Kota Kinabalu: Putatan MP Datuk Shahelmey Yahya (pic) reiterated calls to have excess development funds to be put directly into a Sabah Special Trust Fund.
He said annual finance reports show that the allocations and budgets for Sabah are not used up most of the time.
“And instead of channelling the unused funds, it was better to keep them in the special trust fund so that the state can utilise the money when needed urgently.”
Giving an example, he said the 2023 development budget for Sabah has only been used up to RM2.6bil as of Sept 30, or less than 40pc of the given allocation.
“So the unused funds can be placed under the Special Trust Fund so that planned but delayed development projects can be implemented nevertheless,” said Shahelmey, who is also Sabah Deputy Minister, when debating on Budget 2024 in parliament.
He said the Budget announced the following year can include new projects instead of old projects that have yet to be implemented the previous year.
He said some challenges faced in carrying out the development projects in the year it was announced and planned include financial constraints faced by contractors, land and site problems, ability of the implementing agent, disasters, unforeseen circumstances, utility transfers and poor project planning.
“Every year, we see that a substantial budget is announced by the Government but the fact is that these budgets are not used up by the end of that year,” said Shahelmey.
“I suggest that a project management and risk management unit be set up to ensure that all planned and announced development projects are carried out efficiently and effectively,” he said.
On other matters, he hoped that the remaining phases of the Pan Borneo project which has been delayed in several areas will be completed by early next year.
“I am glad to note that a RM15.7bil allocation has been set aside,” Shahelmey said, adding that when completed, it would be a game changer.
He hopes that the contractors appointed and selected to undertake this project would do their best in getting the highway done with quality.
Shahelmey touched on the issue of terrible road conditions in many parts of the state, for the government to allocate more funds to solve water woes in Sabah and to speed up delayed water supply projects for the state and called on federal ministries to upgrade health clinics and schools especially in rural parts of Sabah.
“I would like to take this opportunity to convey a message from the Association of Consulting Engineers (ACEM) Sabah, to have their scale of fees revised,” he said, adding the last time the fees were revised was in 2003.
In supporting the Budget, he thanked the federal government for allocating RM6.6bil development funds for the state for Budget 2024, compared to RM6.5bil in Budget 2023.
“I believe this allocation can be increased with the 40pc state revenue collected by the federal government from the state, in line with the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63),” said Shahelmey.
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