Kota Kinabalu: State Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Christina Liew urged the Public Works Department (JKR) to speed up on repairing the structural damage on the roof facing the gallery door in the main building of the Department of Sabah Museum.
She said there shouldn’t be any more delay as the deteriorating condition of the roof could pose a danger to the department’s staff and visitors alike.
“International tourists have started flying into Sabah. The State Museum is one of the ‘must see’ tourist destinations in the State Capital, and the netting fixed on the damaged portion of the roof
to catch falling debris is indeed an eyesore.
“I understand that repair work on the affected area is long overdue as the problem dates back to June 2020, and immediate action was supposed to have been taken since then.
“For safety concerns, please treat the matter as urgent. We do not want any untoward incident to happen to museum staff or members of the public,” Liew, who is also Api-Api Assemblywoman, said in a statement, Friday. She was responding to public complaints about the situation that have gone viral on social media.
According to Liew, JKR had carried out immediate inspection work after receiving a report on the incidence of falling crack fragments in 2020.
In the meantime, the Sabah Museum Department was advised to utilise its allocation to do immediate repair by installing netting and removing the fragments, pending cost estimation by JKR.
A year later, JKR requested the Sabah Museum to channel a sum of RM231,055.00 to enable repair work to be carried out immediately by JKR.
The last meeting between the two departments was held in September 2022 where it was reported that the sum in question channelled by the State Museum to JKR for the roof restoration works was inadequate.
