KUCHING: The Chief Minister has the power to call up any state assemblyman or assemblywoman (ADUN) who is perceived to be underperforming.
The ADUN might be perceived as not performing from the scorecard or if there are too many complaints, either verbally or in the social media, about his or her performance, according to Chief Political Secretary to the Chief Minister, Abdullah Saidol.
He said : “This had happened before during the leadership of the late Chief Minister, Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem.
“We do not deny that some were asked to ret i re due t o health reasons. But there are also those who were asked to step down due to their poor performances,” Abdullah told a press conference during the MARA University of Technology (UiTM) Pre-Graduation night held at the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) on Saturday.
“ Ye s , the current Chief Minister, Datuk Amar Abang Johar i Tun Openg is looking closely at the scorecards and he may call up any ADUNs at any particular time.
“ Ev e n t h o u g h t h e S t a t e Secretary’s agency says that the assessment will be done once in every six months, Abang Jo may still assess them (ADUNs) whenever he sees the need for him to do so,” said Abdullah who is also Semop State Assemblyman. He also added that the Barisan Nasional (BN) regularly recruited new ADUNs who were more active to replace those who had left the cabinet. Abdullah also pointed out that there were 17 items that ADUN were assessed on and one of ihe main criteria pertained to project implementation in the respective constituencies.
“Though monitoring of the projects is carried out by agencies such as the Resident Office (RO) and District Office (DO), ADUNs need to make sure that projects are completed within the time frame. “Not only that, projects, particularly in the rural areas, need to follow the right specification and costs are among the many things that need to be managed carefully. “In some cases, contractors will bail out and hence, put the projects on hold.
Upon logging in to their (ADUN) scorecard, there will be a red mark at this item to indicate that there is something wrong with the project.
“This is why ADUNs need to work closely wi th implementing agencies such as the Works Department ( JKR) and Drainage and I r r igat ion Department (DID). Failure to do so will affect the scorecard greatly,” he said. “The scorecard system was first introduced by Adenan in 2016 and Abang Jo has put it into practice since the beginning of this year.,” added Abdullah.
