Lim Guan Eng should not be harping on Sarawak government’s payment of federal debts as administrative arrangements for that are still being discussed among the ministries involved, including his Finance Ministry, said a Sarawak government spokesman today.

Assistant Minister in the Chief Minister’s Office Abdullah Saidol also said Lim’s “tasteless political statement” on Monday was unnecessary.

He said this was because it has only been nine days since the state government had agreed to the four conditions imposed by the Finance Ministry in the special arrangement to secure funding for the repair of the dilapidated schools in the state.

The four conditions are that the RM1 billion proposed repayment be made into the federal consolidated fund, the federal government would then channel the fund for the repair of the schools, the repair contracts would be through open tender to ensure transparency and value for money, and the federal government would take into consideration the state government’s determination which schools should get the repair priority.

“I was made to understand that following this agreed arrangement, there were administrative discussions among officers from the Sarawak government, Education Ministry and Finance Ministry to finalise a few details,” said Abdullah in a statement.

“The Sarawak government has all the intention to fulfil and abide with all the agreed criteria because we don’t want to drag or delay this matter any longer.”

He was referring to Lim’s statement on Monday that Sarawak must repay the RM350 million it owes Putrajaya before executing the first phase of repairs to dilapidated schools in the state.

Lim had said this was the agreement reached with the state government, which owed Putrajaya RM2.37 billion in loans. Of this, it was agreed that RM1 billion would be channelled back to Sarawak for the repair of schools.

“The federal government will expedite the first phase of RM350 million for the repair of dilapidated schools in Sarawak once the state government repays its debt portion of RM350 million,” Lim said in a statement on Monday.

Abdullah also said the state had never defaulted on its federal loan repayments.

“I wish to remind Lim to look at the national Auditor-General’s Report which shows that the Sarawak government never defaulted its loan repayments and is among the top-performing state in terms of financial management.”

He called for better mutual understanding and cooperation between the relevant ministries and agencies “so that project implementation to improve dilapidated school in Sarawak can be expedited”.

“Tasteless political statement is unnecessary when addressing critical public concern such as education,” he said.

Abdullah also took a swipe at Lim and his ministry by saying that while the Education Ministry was “quite reasonable” in their discussions and negotiations with Sarawak, he was “not too sure about the ministry’s communication and relationship with the Finance Ministry”. – July 24, 2019.