PAC probes RM100 million water supply project in Sabah

PAC committee member Dr Tan Seng Giaw says the allocation, given in 2011, was meant to supply water to Pulau Gaya, which includes poor villagers

PETALING JAYA: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is investigating a RM100 million project to supply water to villagers in Pulau Gaya in Sabah.

Its committee member Dr Tan Seng Giaw said the money was given by the federal government through the Rural and Regional Development Ministry to supply water to poor villagers and schools in Pulau Gaya.

“PAC visited the project in KK (Kota Kinabalu) to look at the project. It is terrible. These are poor people we are talking about. We want to know why the villagers are still without water supply when the federal government had given enough money for the project.

“We want to know where and how the money was spent,” he told FMT, Tuesday.

The allocation was given on Dec 26, 2011, and the project was supposed to have been completed by Sept 2015, said Dr Tan.

He added that the PAC would be calling those involved with the project, which includes the Sabah water department, and compile the findings into a report by March 6 for the Dewan Rakyat’s March sitting.

Yesterday, Auditor-General Ambrin Buang had said it was crucial for the PACs in the various states to go to the ground and check personally the progress of projects and spot problems.

Ambrin stressed this was crucial as the PAC audited the projects and departments highlighted in the A-Gs annual reports so that officials could act to rectify them.

Dr Tan said PAC members only visited projects with glaringly possible misappropriation of funds. “We have been making site visits. But we cannot cover all the projects because there are so many cases which in total comes up in millions. The rest of the cases, we normally call them during the PAC meetings.

“It is impossible to visit the sites all the time because there are just so many of them,” he added. -FMT