Sabah moots channelling excess allocations to trust fund

Sabah has proposed to the federal government to channel excess development allocations for the state into a trust fund, said Chief Minister Hajiji Noor.

He said this is to ensure that the funds provided by the federal government for development projects in Sabah do not expire if they cannot be spent in the allotted year.

“The state government will monitor the allocation in the trust fund is used efficiently, according to the purpose of the allocation,” he said.

He said this in his reply to a question from Darell Leiking (Warisan-Moyog), at the Sabah State Legislative Assembly sitting.

Darell wanted to know what steps the Sabah government has taken to ensure the allocation from the federal government can be entirely spent since the allocation in 2022 is very large.

Prevent losses

Hajiji said establishing the trust fund will ensure Sabah does not face losses due to channelled allocations, which cannot be fully utilised for the development of the state.

“(This method) has been the case with special allocations since last year, is saved and put into a trust fund, which can be used even if the (current) year has expired,” he said.

He adds that Sabah received RM5.709 billion in development allocations from the federal government, and of that amount, RM4.457 billion had been spent.

He said the remaining RM1.252 billion could not be spent due to several implementation issues, including contractor, utility, land and management, and implementing agency issues.

“The state government always takes proactive measures in dealing with the matter.

“Among them, by ensuring the high feasibility of a project for implementation in the current year and the following year,” he explained.

Get certified

He said Sabah will also ensure that all project applications to the federal government get certification first.

This is stated in the guidelines for preparing the Mid-Term Review of the 12th Malaysia Plan and applications for federally-funded development projects 2024-2025.

He adds that his move is to ensure development planning meets the state's requirements and that project implementation is completed within the set period.

“To ensure the implementation of federal development projects is carried out as planned, monitoring efforts are carried out continuously by the state government, in cooperation with the State Development Office.

“One of them is through the State Development Action Council, which plays a role in monitoring and discussing the implementation of federal development projects in Sabah,” he said.

Hajiji said the state Public Works Department's empowerment can be done by recognising the department as a Technical Department under the Treasury Directive 182 (AP 182) by the federal government.

He said adding new technical officers is also an important initiative in helping Sabah plan and implement state development projects more efficiently.

- Bernama

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