LAWAS: Fifty-six dilapidated schools in Lawas district will be repaired soon, said Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg.
He said the schools would be repaired under the allocation by the Sarawak government through the Northern Region Development Agency (NRDA).
“Today, I was made to understand that Lawas wants to have its dilapidated schools repaired. So, about 56 projects to repair the schools will be tendered out.
“This is not from the federal government but from NRDA itself,” he said when officiating at the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) Lawas Zone at Lawas Public Park yesterday.
Abang Johari said at the moment, there was a problem with the federal government as it did not keep its promises to fix the dilapidated schools in the state.
“We were told before that the federal government will not rebuild the dilapidated schools unless we pay our debt (RM1 billion contra loan) to them first,” he said.
The chief minister said he had already made a payment of RM700 million out of RM1 billion in the contra deal as required by the federal government so that the repair of the rundown schools could commence.
“But to date, there is no sign of the federal government fulfilling its promises, forcing the state government to use its own fund,” he said.
Abang Johari said the first payment of RM350 million was made last year with a condition that 37 dilapidated schools in the state would be repaired but nothing had been done so far.
“Then this month, I paid another RM350 million, making it a total of RM700 million, but not a single pillar was seen,” he said.
However, Abang Johari said for Lawas and under NRDA, the state wanted the repair work for the 56 dilapidated schools to be tendered by using its own money.
“We will not wait for the federal government anymore even though the payment that we made before is our money,” he said.
The chief minister added the Sarawak government was good at managing its finances.
“We have a good Credit Rating record and definitely, we will not go bankrupt as alleged by Lim Guan Eng,” he said.
