SANDAKAN – Only one-third of the funds needed to maintain federal roads and street lights in Sabah was approved for three years, endangering the lives of road users with dark and damaged roads.
Deputy Works Minister Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Mohamad (Lipis-Barisan Nasional) told the august house yesterday that the Works Ministry had applied for RM15 million a year for the maintenance of street lights and federal roads in Sabah, but received only RM4.9 million.
He said federal roads in Sabah stretch over 1,500km with 7,333 streetlights – while in Sandakan alone, it was 69.58km with 1,682 streetlights.
“The Works Ministry takes note of all issues, but we are facing a huge obstacle - insufficient funding. The allocation approved is thus distributed fairly to all districts (in Sabah), with the focus placed on black spots and areas with frequent accidents,” he said.
Abdul Rahman was answering Vivian Wong’s (Sandakan-Pakatan Harapan) question on Sandakan’s faulty street light problem that has been prolonged for over six months.
He said the cost to maintain street lights and traffic lights in Sandakan alone was RM500,000, but only RM550,000 was approved for the whole of Sabah.
For the first phase, Sandakan only received RM60,000 for the maintenance of street lights and federal roads.
Wong raised a supplementary question asking if the ministry has considered changing street lights to LED lights, given that the current street lights in Sabah are generally dim and do not last long.
“We (the ministry) are actually always alert on all these needs. We tried our best to plan and improve (the roads) but our obstacle is huge – lack of allocations,” Abdul Rahman replied.
When Datuk Seri Wilfred Madius Tangau (Tuaran-PH) asked why such a small amount was allocated for matters involving the lives of road users, Abdul Rahman said: “you know how this works, you have been a minister before too”
“We have limited capacity due to lack of funding, which is distributed across the country. Let us pray that the Ministry of Works will get more allocations”.
Meanwhile, Wong in a statement today said that even though the allocation approved for federal roads and street light maintenance in Sandakan is far from sufficient, she will still work hard to get more allocations to solve the problem. – The Vibes, February 17, 2023
