By Peter Sibon
KUCHING, Jan 2: The issue of uncut grass along federal roads continues to be a hot topic between Stampin MP Chong Chieng Jen and Padawan Municipal Council (MPP) chairman Lo Khere Chiang.
Today, Lo accused Chong, who is also Deputy Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs, of not knowing the role of agencies such as MPP and the Public Works Department (JKR) in the context of the issue at hand.
Describing it as “amazing and absolutely incredible” how Chong could heap the blame on MPP and JKR without checking the facts, Lo said it reflected how “illogical and irresponsible” Chong had become in the public’s eyes.
“He is definitely not acting like a federal deputy minister in the way he throws tantrums and fits over the uncut grass issue that has ‘made’ him fork out RM200 of his own money to cut the grass. I wonder if he is going to do the same for all the federal roads from Kuching to Lawas. Who is he trying to fool?” said Lo in a statement today.
Lo, who is also Batu Kitang assemblyman, reminded Chong that different government agencies are entrusted with different tasks and responsibilities, and “the council is not responsible for everything”.
“Neither can the council move in to undertake the services of other monitoring government agencies. MPP cannot simply dispense its funds to carry out works that do not come under its responsibilities as we are subject to audit queries and the Public Accounts Committee (PAC),” Lo emphasised.
He advised Chong to find out whether Putrajaya had allocated money for grass cutting along federal protocol roads and, if so, whether the sum is sufficient.
“As a federal deputy minister, he should have known that there are no allocations as far back as November and December 2018.
“As a responsible politician and being part of the federal cabinet, he must find out what went wrong and fix it so that the implementing agency can have the money to do its job,” Lo asserted and reminded Chong not to fool the public. — DayakDaily
