PUTRAJAYA giving more than what was required was the reason a chunk of the annual development allocation went unused and subsequently reclaimed by the federal government, Sabah Finance Minister Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun said.
Masidi (GRS-Karanaan) also rubbished inefficiencies in state agencies as the reason why Sabah did not fully utilise the allocation, stating that the expenditure performance of the state machinery was quite commendable as it consistently reaches 80% or more spending each year.
“When a substantial allocation is granted to Sabah, of course a chunk of the monies cannot be fully utilised. This creates a technical issue, as it is assumed that we received a huge allocation, even though the actual requirement is much lower as the projects are mostly in the early stages.
“This contributes to the perception that our performance in utilising federal funds is seemingly low. The technical problem is that most of the (development) projects are in the planning stages and often require less funding.
“These projects do not require a significant allocation because they involve preliminary work and take approximately 6 to 12 months for preparation and implementation,” said Masidi in his ministerial winding-up speech in the state assembly in Kota Kinabalu today.
Masidi said this in response to the issues raised by two Sabah MPs earlier that the state is losing billions of its rightful allocations.
Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin (BN-Lamag) said inefficiencies in the state machinery made it impossible to utilise 100% of the federal fund. He added that bureaucracy was the reason projects could not commence instantly.
Masidi cited a total of RM1.259 billion was allocated for early stage projects by the state departments and that only RM175.24 million had been spent or just 13.92% this year.
However, he admitted the overall utilisation of the federal funds for 2023 is still low and that only RM3.513 billion or only 66.77% had so far been spent by the end of October.
A total of RM1.501 billion worth of projects were implemented by the state departments this year and as of October 31, these departments had utilised RM992 million, said Masidi.
“Overall, the projects registered under MyProject involved 1,215 tasks, 996 were carry forwards while 221 were new ones. The value of the carry forward projects have hit RM3.38 billion or 63.66% as of October 31, this year,” he said.
Masidi said Sabah has already established the state development action council chaired by Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor to coordinate, enhance, monitor issues related to the federal funded projects. – The Vibes, November 30, 2023
