MP must answer RM35m fiasco: DAP
Published on: Saturday, December 08, 2018
Kota Kinabalu: Sabah Umno MP Yamani Hafez Musa must be held responsible for the damage done to a large area of virgin forest reserve in Tawau on the pretext of conducting the country's first geothermal power plant.Kota Kinabalu Member of Parliament Chan Foong Hin, in making this call, said millions had been spent on the controversial project only to see it being left abandoned and finally scrapped."I have been fighting this controversial project since five years ago, when I was Sri Tanjong Assemblyman.ADVERTISEMENT "It has come to the end. The project has been cancelled despite a large area of virgin forest reserve logged, RM35 million grant spent but no physical project progress seen," he said in a statement. It is believed that a Lebanese partner in the project has fled the State without settling a RM200,000 bill with a leading hotel.Chan said he told Parliament on Wednesday that Yamani, who is Sipitang Member of Parliament, was behind the controversial Tawau Green Energy geothermal power plant project in 2013 as he was the majority shareholder.Minister of Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change, Yeo Bee Yin, had earlier said that the geothermal power plant project in Sabah which should have been operational by December 31 2017 had been scrapped.Yeo had said the project site was found abandoned and overgrown with weeds.ADVERTISEMENT Based on her visit to the project site which was implemented on July 2 2015, the plant was found not showing any progress."For example, drilling stopped in the third quarter of 2016 and slim hole had been closed...all cabins and drilling equipment are no longer at the site, no workers were found there and the area is covered with overgrowth," she said to the original question by Chan during question time in Parliament. The government through the Sustainable Energy Development Authority (Seda) decided to cancel the approval given on August 29 2018, she said.
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Yeo had also said the 37 megawatt generation incentive quota from the project would be redistributed to other viable renewable energy projects especially biogas, biomass and hydro.Towards this end, Chan accused Yamani, who is Sipitang Member of Parliament, as an irresponsible politician as he had also not shown up to take his oath of office until today.It was reported that the Dewan Rakyat would issue a final reminder to Yamani to take his oath of office immediately.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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Dewan Rakyat Speaker Datuk Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof had said that Yamani needed to be sworn in as a Member of Parliament soon as otherwise he will be disqualified.Photo Source: roketkini.com