After water, road maintenance next

Kota Kinabalu: Fresh after terminating the contracts of six water concessionaires which it said will save the State RM186 million yearly, the State Infrastructure Development Ministry has now turned its attention to road maintenance contracts awarded by the previous Barisan Nasional government.

It is in the process of appointing new contractors to maintain roads in rural areas in Sabah to replace those that had a “bad reputation.”

Its Minister Datuk Peter Anthony (pic) said the new contractors would be those with quality to carry out a better service.

“Few of the contractors which carried out road maintenance work before had a bad reputation.

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Kota Kinabalu: The Sabah Government continued its momentum in managing the economy in line with the commitment and spirit of the Sabah Maju Jaya (SMJ) when it posted record high state revenue of RM6.973 billion last year.

“So, the State Government made the decision to terminate their services and they will be replaced by new companies which have the quality to do the work,” he said, after delivering his New Year message at the Ministry’s Christmas celebration, Friday.

He said until now the State Government has terminated the contract of one road maintenance company, Globinaco, whose “big work package” will be divided into smaller parts so that other contractors will have a share of the contract.

“Before this, their work package was very big. So the Ministry has proposed that the package be divided so that more contractors can participate in road maintenance work,” he said.

Last month, the State Government terminated the contracts of 58 outsourced water treatment plant concessionaires in Sabah, citing lopsided deals. Under the original agreements, the concessionaires were paid RM3.7 billion for the work over 20 years.

Meanwhile, Peter said the public service approach taken by the new government is no more a top-down bureaucracy as practised before but a bottom-up innovation.

“No more messy system, that’s too multi-layered and enclosed. Ours is more open and transparent,” he said.

He also spelled out six of the ministry’s key targets for 2019, with reducing the rate of non-water revenue (NRW) top on the list as the NRW rate in Sabah is still high.

Secondly, he said the Ministry would start work on the construction of the Papar Dam as a long term solution to water supply problem in Kota Kinabalu and its surrounding areas.

The third is to carry out the Pan Borneo Highway project based on a re-study of its implementation structures.

He added that the Ministry would do a feasibility study to build a main port in Kudat which, based on initial observation, has the potential to function as an inbound and outbound trade centre.

The Ministry would also upgrade the railway service using the latest technology and ensure the Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) achieves 94 per cent target of electricity supply to all rural communities while at the same time reduce the System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI) by 2020.

He assured that the Ministry would be prudent in utilizing development allocations channeled to it to achieve the six key targets and their success will be able to be measured by the people. - Leonard Alaza

Photo Source: Bernama

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