Lim Sian See
Certain parties have been trying to blame the Federal Govt for not giving them the RM150mil in funds for the Sg. Pinang flood mitigation project.
Here are the facts:
1) This RM150mil amount, which is part of a bigger project, were promised to the Penang Govt in 2008 is conditional on the Penang Govt doing their part by clearing the riverbanks of squatters.
River-widening projects cannot start if squatters are on the river banks.
The Penang Govt only managed to deliver their end of the bargain after March 2016 – hence qualifying for the funds in the next budget.
““The arrangement with the federal government was the Penang state government will clear the squatters who live along the Sungai Pinang which runs through the area and provide them housing. Meanwhile, the federal government will allocate money for the river widening under the flood mitigation project. Now, the state has almost cleared all the squatters and yet, the allocation has not been approved,” Jagdeep said at a press conference on 2nd March 2016 at Jalan P. Ramlee.
https://www.buletinmutiara.com/putrajaya-asked-to-keep-flo…/
Thus any delay at this stage was due to the Penang Govt.
This, the Federal Govt then kept their part of the bargain when Federal Minister Wan Junaidi announced the RM150mil allocation for the year 2017 on 8 Nov 2016:
http://www.themalaymailonline.com/…/federal-govt-to-give-pe…
2) Although the funds have now been allocated, the delay in actually spending the money in 2017 was not due to Federal Govt.
“Penang’s planned flood mitigation projects can only start towards the end of 2017, and will take up to three years’ to complete, Penang EXCO in charge of flood mitigation Chow Kon Yeow said in April 2017.
Chow said this was because the relevant tender process and other studies needed to be carried out first.
http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/…/tender-process-blamed-f…/
Thus any delay up to this stage is again due to the Penang Govt and their strange habit of “studies” being habitually late to complete.
Source: Lim Sian See