WARISAN has called for the establishment of a royal inquiry into the billions of ringgit allocated for the Sabah portion of the Pan Borneo Highway, which has remained incomplete since 2016.
Its president Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal said there should be no reason not to initiate a probe on this matter as a similar proposal has been made to investigate alleged loss of funds in the case of the littoral combat ships (LCS).
“There must be a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) on the Pan Borneo Highway. Where has the money gone since it was announced in 2016?” he said.
He said this in responding to Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor who had earlier accused the previous Warisan-led Sabah state government helmed by Shafie of failure.
Shafie, who is the Senallang state assemblyman and Semporna MP, shot back, accusing Hajiji’s own administration of failing to deal with the problem of amenities and road conditions In Sabah.
“If cars can talk, they will complain that their feet are in pain, their tyres are punctured, their waists hurt, absorbers damaged.
“They will say there are a lot of holes on the road that needed patching up. These are the problems I can see. Don’t blame us.
“You have governed for three years, while ours just over two years,” Shafie said.
The Pan Borneo Highway is planned to span about 700km in Sabah and some 1,100 km in the Sarawak section.
The Malaysian government has approved a link road that will connect Sarawak to Sabah, bypassing Brunei.
Last Monday, federal Deputy Public Works Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan had said in Parliament that the progress of work for Package 1A of the Pan Borneo Highway is 88 per cent. He said that all the contractors for this package are from Sabah.
Meanwhile the tender process for the first phase of Package 1B is underway. A total of 300 companies have applied for tenders related to this phase which involves 15 work packages, he said.
“The tender for 15 Phase 1B packages is not only for Sabah contractors but for all Malaysians and will not be open to foreign contractors,” he said.
Ahmad was responding to a supplementary question from Shafie regarding the government's action against companies that failed to complete the Pan Borneo Highway project within the stipulated time.
Meanwhile, Shafie stressed to reporters later that billions of ringgit allocated by the federal government annually to Sabah for development projects have had to be returned to Putrajaya’s coffers as most were unused due to red tape that hampered the projects from being started.
On another note, Shafie said that Warisan is still engaged in talks with Umno on a possible electoral cooperation.
He insisted however that the party is open to cooperate with others in the upcoming Sabah election due by 2025.
He said such cooperation must hold Sabah affairs as the top priority. Warisan can work with a peninsula-based party as long as it shares this same goal.
Shafie also noted that Sabah does not have the numbers at the federal level as there are only 25 parliamentary constituencies in the state. This is not enough to potently raise issues surrounding Sabah in the Dewan Rakyat.
He lamented that Sabah and Sarawak have endured extensive periods of inadequate and substandard facilities as Malaysia marks the 61st year of its formation in 1963.
He attributed this to imbalanced distribution of funds, with primary focus placed on the peninsula.
Shafie also noted that there are still many terms stipulated in the Malaysia Agreement 1963 that have not been resolved, particularly on the finances which Sabah needs badly to resolve its pressing issues. – The Vibes, March 13, 2024
