KUCHING: Sungai Asap Resettlement Scheme at Bakun recently made headlines for all the wrong reasons.
The more than 10,000 residents at the resettlement scheme were relocated to make way for the development of the Bakun Hydro Electric Dam.
Having made the resettlement area as their homes, the issue of not having clean water supply has become their ‘top’ daily problem.
“To avoid similar mistake being made in the future, accountability is the key. We have to identify the culprits and let them be held responsible. There is a need for the Sarawak Government to make a stand and adopt a stance so that private consultants, contractors, civil servants or whoever have been negligent and proposed failed projects be ‘black-listed’ or held responsible. Something needs to be done to find out where and what actually went wrong. Trace back from the design, construction or perhaps on the operation and maintenance aspect of it. So next time they will be more careful in what they want to propose, design or do” said Hemang Yu, PRS Murum Youth.
“We made known some of the problems and although they were rectified they came only 10 years later and only when complaints were made. We want to know what the real problems are.
“Private consultants, Government officers in-charge, from inspectors to evaluation committees must also play their part and be made answerable for any failures or negligence. After all, they are Government Officers and have all the reasons to safeguard the people’s well-being especially when it comes to an important utility like water,” Hemang said.
Publicity Chief for PRS Murum Youth, Jerry Bun Tony said ministers are political appointees. “Although they are appointed based on ‘best fit’ to the ministry, Ministers do not know everything and should not assume to know and became an ‘expert’ overnight due to their appointments. That is why Ministers are given ‘Briefings’ by officers in their Ministries when they assumed the posts.
“As a result, Ministers when dealing with very technical matters, rely on their staff to brief and advise them based on in-depth technical knowledge. Besides, dispensing proper advice, these officers also serve as a ‘gate-keeper’ to scrutinise and look at the viability of projects proposed by private contractors via consultants. MPU and JKR are two good examples of this and I hope the State Government will take a look at how to implement the ‘two-prong accountability approach’, which is how to deal with negligent external consultants and also in-house advisors/officers,” Jerry concluded.
