Kota Kinabalu: The Land and Survey Department has implemented several strategies to resolve issues related to land ownership in Sabah, especially in rural areas, said State Finance Assistant Minister Datuk Nizam Abu Bakar Titingan.
He said the main strategy is to resolve the backlog of land applications in all districts by processing all land applications in groups based on the area they were applied by using the latest ICT (information and communications technology) and geospatial technology.
“Based on land application statistics, the total outstanding land applications on Jan 1, 2015 was 280,695,” he said during question time.
“This number has been successfully reduced to 37,857 as of Oct 31, this year, which is a reduction of 86.5 per cent in less than eight years.
“The Land and Survey Department will try to resolve the other outstanding land applications in 2023.”
Nizam was answering Nominated Assemblyman Dr Aliakbar Gulasan’s question.
The Land and Survey Department, he said, has planned various reforms and modernisation to improve the quality of service and delivery.
“The next strategy is to speed up the land application measurement process through the Field-to-Finish (F2F) method where the lot measurement and calculation plan are completed simultaneously in the field. This will directly shorten the period of processing land title issuance.
“The use of the newly implemented Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) technology allows group land measurements to be carried out faster and more cost-saving,” he said.
Through the Sabah Native Land Services Programme (Pantas) which was created to address the issue of Native land ownership in rural areas, measurements based on occupation on the land until the issuance of land grants are set within 12 months.
“The number of land titles that have been issued under Pantas from 2012 until Oct 31 is 27,572 involving 42,429.26 hectares. Through Pantas, the percentage of indigenous land ownership in Sabah has been increased from 24.5 per cent or 477,171 hectares of the 1.95 million hectares of total land ownership in 2010 to 42.7 per cent or 1.14 million hectares of the total 2.66 million hectares of land ownership in 2021.”
In addition, in order to resolve the outstanding land measurements for the approved land application lots, the State Government through the privatisation surveying of Native Land initiative has appointed a Licensed Surveyor to reduce dependence on Government Surveying Technicians.
“To ensure that all outlined strategies run smoothly, the Land and Survey Department has prepared Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and set Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for each department involved as well as carrying out periodic monitoring so that the objectives can be achieved,” he said.
Although various programmes and strategies have been implemented in empowering land administration in Sabah, Nizam said, there are some constraints and challenges that are still faced by the Land and Survey Department, especially on land measurement.
“Among the problems often faced by the Department during the measurement process is that the land applicant cannot be contacted because the address specified in the land application form is incomplete or not updated because the applicant works outside the district or the applicant has migrated to another place,” he said.
