Sarawak Chinese school boards urge Education Ministry to streamline fund distribution for repair, maintenance projects

KUCHING (Oct 9): Sarawak United Association of Chinese School Boards of Management president Datuk Pau Chiong Ung is appealing to the Ministry of Education (MoE) to improve its mechanism for the distribution of funds for repair and maintenance projects at Chinese schools.

He said currently, the Chinese school boards in Sarawak would have to wait for more than six months to receive funds for the projects, which would usually range from RM30,000 to RM50,000 or at most RM100,000.

“We have to fill in a lot of forms and we are also required to obtain three quotations for a project ranging between RM30,000 and RM50,000.

“We have submitted the necessary documents in the beginning of the year but until today we have yet to receive the allocation.

“This makes it difficult for us to carry out the repair and maintenance projects because by the time we receive the funds and go to our appointed contractor, the initial quotation given to us would no longer be valid as local quotations are usually valid for 30 or at most, 60 days only,” he told a press conference after a meeting with United Chinese Schools Committees Association (Dong Zong) here today.

Also present were Dong Zong chairman Tan Yew Sing and Dong Zong Sarawak deputy chairman Dato Richard Wee.

Pau, who is also Dong Zong Sarawak chairman, said this year’s allocation of funds was also to cover the repair of toilets at the schools.

“We are thankful to the government for the allocation of funds for repair and maintenance projects, but we urge them to do away with the unnecessary documentation and to change the mechanism of the funds distribution,” he reiterated.

He hoped that the funds would be distributed to the school boards as soon as possible.

“Let us complete these repair and maintenance projects within the same year because usually when the allocation is distributed, we would have to complete them within a fixed schedule,” he said.