Sarawak roads way behind schedule

The AG's report states the weaknesses included bad construction and safety.

KUALA LUMPUR: The road construction projects in Sarawak do not meet deadlines and are wanting in safety standards.

The Auditor-General’s report states the construction and upgrading of rural road projects were approved during the Ninth Malaysia Plan.

And from 2010 the projects were continued under the National Key Result Area (NKRA) to speed up the construction of more rural roads.

There are not enough roads connecting the towns in Sarawak and this is one of the major reasons behind the state’s under-development.

Many of the inhabitants in the vast interiors sometimes have no access to healthcare and schools.

Despite the staggering allocations given for the projects, the AG’s report noted poor implementation on the part of the Ministry of Rural and Regional Development and the Sarawak government.

Contract violations

“Projects implementation performance was rather unsatisfactory because 38 projects (37.6%) costing RM178.94 million out of 101 completed projects amounting to RM437.57 million were delayed in completion ranging from 15 to 242 days from the original schedule.

” A total of 13 projects (17.6%) out of 74 costing RM229.27 million under construction were behind schedule by more than 20% whileconstruction and upgrading of roads did not follow contract specifications,” said the report.

The report also noted that customer feedback results indicate that road users were not satisfied with the quality, safety and comfortability aspects of the roads.

The report stated that from 2006 to 2010, the government had approved an allocation of RM1.727 billion for the implementation of 175 road projects.

Out of the 175 projects, 146 projects costing RM1.104 billion were implemented by the Public Works Department Sarawak and the remaining 29 projects costing RM622.84 million were implemented by the Drainage and Irrigation Department Sarawak.

The actual expenditure for these road projects as at Dec 31, 2011 amounted to RM1.024 billion