Works Minister S Samy Vellu said today that clean-up works at the fungal-infected Sultan Ismail Hospital in Johor Bahru will be completed within 10 weeks of the disbursement of allocation by the Treasury.

"The Finance Ministry has approved the allocation and once we receive the money, we can start work and it is expected to take two-and-a-half months to be completed," he told reporters in Sungai Siput after launching a gotong-royong there.

According to Bernama, the minister said that since not all floors of the hospital building were infected, the building would be handed over to the Health Ministry in stages.

"We do not have to wait for two-and-a-half months to hand over all (the floors) at one go. Upon completion of a certain section, we will hand it over, like the Emergency Section first," he said.

Samy Vellu was commenting on a recent statement by Health Minister Dr Chua Soi Lek that the hospital had not been handed over to his ministry although five months have passed since the hospital was ordered to be closed.

The 740-bed hospital, costing RM557.8 million, was closed on Sept 25 last year after it was hit by a major fungal infection, just two months after it started operations.

Procedures

Early last month, Samy Vellu said that the fungal infection began at an indoor garden of the hospital and the clean-up operations would cost RM14 million.

Explaining the delay, Samy Vellu said that the draft of the agreement on the clean-up works was submitted to the Health Ministry on Nov 27 while the reply came on Dec 3.

It was then referred to the Attorney-General's Chambers, the Treasury and the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) in the Prime Minister's Department on Dec 15 and approved by the Cabinet on Jan 26, he said.

The letters of intent were issued on Feb 3 to Germguard Technologies (M) Sdn Bhd to carry out the clean-up and fungal prevention works and MH Projects Sdn Bhd to redo the indoor garden, the minister added.