Lukanisman: Choose competent contractors to prevent delays in school building project

MIRI (Nov 17): Incompetent contractors are to blame for the delays in the delivery of two primary schools in Sibuti parliamentary constituency, said an irked Deputy Health Minister and Sibuti MP Lukanisman Awang Sauni.

The delays in completing SK Kampung Selanyau and SK Kita have caused the projects to be labelled as ‘sick’, and caused anger among parents and teachers.

“I was promised that the SK Kpg Selanyau project would be completed in February 2023 but so far the project is only at 71 per cent done while works at SK Kita, expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2024, have been stopped,” he said in his Facebook post on Wednesday.

These two schools are among the three dilapidated schools approved by the Ministry of Education for upgrading in Sibuti constituency, with the other one on track.

The ministry has approved repair and upgrading of 15 dilapidated schools in Sibuti since 2018; six projects have been delivered, six have yet to start and two classified as ‘sick’ project and one on track.

He said parents and teachers have been looking forward to the completion of SK Selanyau as scheduled while there could be trouble ahead for the double-session SK Tawakal Satap school upgrading project.

“It does not look conducive because the building is also in the dilapidated school category and there were only two or three workers carrying out construction works when I went for a site inspection there,” he explained.

The deputy minister thus called on the Public Works Department (JKR) and MoE to expedite the delivery of the two ‘sick’ projects and find out the root cause.

“Is it a payment issue? Is it a contractor or sub-contractor issue? The latest we heard was, the project contractor of SK Kita has been terminated and a rescue contractor will be appointed,” he added.

Lukanisman stressed that the authorities should ensure that only competent contractors who are financially sound are appointed, and priority should be given to those in Sarawak.

He said several layers of sub-contracting, resulting in delays of several dilapidated school upgrading projects, will create a negative public perception of the government.

On SK Perancangan Sepupok, he said it is scheduled to be the next project to be completed and he hoped it will proceed smoothly despite the challenges of the cost of building materials which has gone up by 30 per cent during the Covid-19 pandemic period.

Meanwhile, upgrading projects proposed for seven schools in Sibuti that have not yet started are SK Keluru Tengah, SK Subak, SK Bekenu (additional building), SK Lambir Village (additional building), SK Beraya (additional building), SMK Luar Bandar (new block of 36 classrooms) and SK Batu Niah (land acquisition process – new project under the 12th Malaysia Plan).