KUCHING, July 24: Pending assemblywoman Violet Yong urges the Sarawak government to immediately pay up the RM350 million loan so as to enable the federal government to re-channel the sum back as allocation for the repair of dilapidated schools.
In a press release today, she called for the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) state government to deliver its promise and honour the agreement reached with the federal government to make the repayment as the first phase of the loan payment amounting to RM1 billion.
“The longer it takes for the state government to repay the loan debt, it would be seen as further delaying the commencement of repair projects for dilapidated schools in the state.
“If the state government were to immediately make the repayment, then the federal government will be able to accelarate the provision of funding to the state government for the school repairs,” she added.
Yong noted that the Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg had on July 15, 2019 written a letter to the federal government to express the state government’s agreement to the loan repayment arrangement and mechanism.
On the agreement between the state and federal government on the RM1 billion loan, she said that firstly, the state government was required to channel the RM1 billion into the federal government’s consolidated fund.
“Secondly, the federal government will channel the same amount as repaid by the state government as allocation to repair the dilapidated schools in Sarawak.
“Thirdly, the repair works for schools in Sarawak should be offered through open tender system and fourthly, the federal government will then take into account the priority of the Sarawak government in determining the schools to be repaired,” she explained.
To address the issue on the dilapidated schools in Sarawak, she reiterated that the Pakatan Harapan (PH) federal government had through the 2019 National Budget approved RM100 million for the Ministry of Education for that intent.
“In other words, this sum of RM350 million is an addition to the budgeted allocation of RM100 million,” she added.
Yong thus opined that it was the state government that was politicising and hyping up the issue on dilapidated schools in Sarawak without giving their full cooperation to solve it.
“This issue of dilapidated schools has long existed since the previous BN (Barisan Nasional) governance, and in the past, they are not keen in solving the issue which resulted in the so many dilapidated schools we have today,” she said.
Yong said she hoped that the Sarawak government could stop faulting the federal government and Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng for their own previous mistakes and fault. — DayakDaily
