Kota Kinabalu: The Warisan Plus government’s decision to terminate the Project Delivery Partner (PDP) model for the Pan Borneo Highway Sabah project in September 2019 is alleged to be the main cause of the project’s implementation problems.
Parti Gagasan Rakyat Sabah (PGRS) Kinabatangan division pro-tem information chief Aksyah Nasrah said the decision affected the remaining 20 of the project’s 35 work packages, covering a total length of 706km.
He claimed the termination triggered various technical problems and contractual legal disputes and affected the Sabah Public Works Department’s (JKR) ability to take over the project through conventional implementation.
Aksyah questioned the motive of Warisan supporters who used the issue to criticise the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) Government led by Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor.
“Who was at the helm of the State Government from mid-2018 until the end of 2020? Wasn’t that the era of the Warisan Plus administration led by Shafie?” he said.
Aksyah also criticised Shafie’s reported dissatisfaction with Sabah’s PDP model because the company was led by an individual with a political background, Datuk Ir Shahelmey Yahya, who was then a Sabah Umno Youth leader.
He said Shahelmey’s appointment as managing director of the PDP company was not based solely on his political background, but also took into account his professional engineering qualifications and technical experience.
Aksyah questioned Warisan’s objections to the appointment on political grounds, claiming that the party had also appointed political leaders as ministers and chairmen of government-linked companies (GLCs).
He also raised the appointment of the Sabah Water Department director during Shafie’s administration, which he alleged involved nepotism.
On Shafie’s comparison with the implementation of the Pan Borneo Highway project in Sarawak, Aksyah said the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) government had strong financial preparations and a technical implementation plan before terminating its PDP model.
“It is true that Sarawak also agreed to cancel the PDP model, but GPS was not an empty vessel like Warisan,” he said, alleging that the Warisan Plus government terminated the contract without adequate contingency plans, leaving the remaining work packages facing implementation problems.
He said the decision was a major cause of the project’s difficulties, particularly as the remaining packages had already been affected before the country faced the Covid-19 pandemic and the Movement Control Order (MCO).
Aksyah also questioned the project’s expenditure of RM10.547 billion, equivalent to 94.6 per cent of the RM11.153 billion allocation for the period from 2016 to March 2026, despite physical progress continuing to lag behind.
