By Ling Hui
KUCHING, Feb 10: Sarawak Energy Berhad (Sarawak Energy) is on the lookout for more competent contractors to fulfil increasing Additional Late Applicant Fund (ALAF) applications.
Minister of Utility and Telecommunication (MUT) Sarawak Datuk Julaihi Narawi said Sarawak Energy, the implementing agency of ALAF, has to-date received about 40,000 applications.
He said the figure will continue to increase with the rising numbers of houses and population in rural areas.
Some 7,000 applications have been completed while 5,000 more are being handled by 32 contractor teams throughout Sarawak today.
With the relaxation of the Covid-19 standard operating procedures (SOP), he assured that the installation processes can be sped up.
“But of course, Sarawak Energy is also looking for more competent and certified contractors to work on the rest of the applications,” he added.
The ALAF project was injected with a total of RM90 million from both the Federal and State governments, and as of today, about RM50 million has been used up.
Meanwhile, Julaihi expressed hope that contractors registered under Sarawak Energy to work for the ALAF project are willing to travel deep into the interior to bring electricity to the rural community.
“There’s no such issue from contractors so far, but we truly hope that they are willing to travel and work at remote areas,” he said during a press conference following a special briefing at Sarawak Energy headquarters here today.
This was Julaihi’s first working visit to Sarawak Energy since his appointment as minister whereby he was given an overview of the organisation’s current performance, challenges and ways forward as well as future outlook.
Accompanying Julaihi were Assistant Minister of Utility Datuk Dr Abdul Rahman Junaidi, Assistant Minister of Telecommunication Datuk Liwan Lagang, MUT permanent secretary Dato Alice Jawan Empaling, and Director of Electricity Syed Mohamad Fauzi Shahab.
Also in attendance from Sarawak Energy were Sarawak Energy group chief executive officer (CEO) Datu Sharbini Suhaili, group chief operating officer (COO) James Ung, SESCO CEO Lau Kim Swee, SEB Power CEO Bunyak Lunyong, and chief financial officer Alexander Chin. — DayakDaily
