KUCHING: It is totally baseless to say that money allocated by the federal government for the state’s road management was not spent but kept in the State Road Maintenance Trust Fund.
Finance Second Minister Datuk Sri Wong Soon Koh said this in response to the road maintenance fund issue raised by Chong Chieng Jen (DAP-Kota Sentosa).
“From 2015 to 2018, the state government received RM3.318 million from the federal government for road maintenance.
“In the same period, RM4.152 billion was allocated to all the implementation agencies which was more by RM834 million than what the federal government had already allocated to the state,” he said in his ministerial winding-up speech in the State Legislative Assembly.
“Out of that amount, RM3.818 billion or 92% was spent, so to say the money was not spent is rather speculative and totally baseless.
“Even the Auditor-General in his annual report has acknowledged the satisfactory state road maintenance.
“The balance in the account is critical to facilitate and enable the implementing agencies to do better planning and implementation of the road maintenance programmes.”
However, having sufficient balance in the account does not mean that it is not utilised and that roads are not maintained, he argued.
“So, to say that excess balance in the account is associated with work not done on the ground is rather naïve of Chong,” he said.
He then pointed out that the grant for road maintenance is given on monthly basis, which is not at all effective in meeting the needs of project planning and project implementation purposes.
“Chong should discuss with his counterparts in the federal government particularly the Minister of Finance to disburse the grant in one lump sum at the beginning of the year to facilitate planning and implementation of road maintenance effectively and efficiently.”
