THE Pakatan Harapan Education Committee urged the Education Ministry (MOE) and Works Ministry to provide detailed explanation on why the bill to repair dilapidated schools shot up by 2.7 times under the 12th Malaysia Plan.
“The ministries must provide the name list of the 148 dilapidated buildings and explain the job scope for the public to scrutinise,” it said, in a statement.
Earlier today, Education Minister Radzi Jidin shocked Opposition members when he told Dewan Rakyat that the average cost of refurbishing dilapidated schools had shot up from RM3.9 mil indicated under the 11th Malaysia Plan to RM10.8 mil in the new plan.
He also mentioned that there were delays in repairing such school since 2018, mostly in East Malaysia and stressed it was not a new problem.
Among them, 190 projects have not even taken off – five were due to have started in 2019, 80 last year and another 105 this year.
On that note, Pakatan leaders said the whopping sum raised a lot of suspicion among the people and details must be provided to justify the new sum.
“Remember that we are using taxpayers’ money and there must not be any elements of wastage or mark-up in such projects,” it concluded. – Oct 7, 2021.
Pic credit: FMT
