TEACHERS in some of Sarawak’s off-grid schools are reportedly passing the hat among themselves to collect enough money to buy diesel for their school’s generator.

Dennis Ngau, the assemblyman for the rural seat of Telang Usan, deep in Baram, told The Malaysian Insight that funds allocated by the Education Ministry to buy diesel are usually not enough.

“There’s just not enough money, so the teachers have to band together and do a collection to pay the supplier,” Ngau said in response to reports of disruption in diesel supply.

The diesel shortage faced by 370 off-grid schools in rural Sarawak highlights the recent controversy surrounding efforts by the previous government to equip these schools with solar energy.

Prior to the May 9 general election, a Bintulu-based company. Jepak Holdings Sdn Bhd, was awarded the contract to deliver fuel to more than 370 off-grid schools in rural Sarawak and also install solar power for longer-term power generation.

The RM1.25 billion contract, personally awarded by former prime minister Najib Razak in January 2017, quickly turned controversial.

Najib allegedly bypassed the ministry’s strict rules on tendering and price negotiation and by-passed several companies qualified to install solar power in favour of the politically connected firm.

Questions were also raised how Jepak Holdings, which reportedly had zero experience and expertise in solar power generation, could be awarded such a large contract.

Whistle-blower site Sarawak Report said 18 months into the three-year contract, “not a single solar power unit has yet been installed at any of the designated school, although the money has continued to flow from the Department of Education”.

A month after Pakatan Harapan won power, the contract was terminated and has also become a subject of a Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) investigation.

In July, Sarawak state Education Minister Michael Manyin told the state legislative assembly that to avoid disruption, the ministry had authorised the state Education Department to purchase up to RM20,000 of diesel a month for a ceiling of RM200,000 for 10 months for each school.

Manyin said under a new guidelines, the director of the state Education Department would appoint one company for one school and priority was to be given to local companies registered with the Ministry of Finance.

However, Manyin said the state has not cancelled the contract as “there are legal issues involved” but said the state government was working with Jepak Holdings to resolve its issues.

“I hope the issue of (this) diesel contract can be solved soonest,” Manyin said.

Manyin also told the state assembly in July that the solar-hybrid system proposed by the federal government for these off-grid schools was “not a total solution” to the problem.

In 2017, his ministry submitted a proposal for the 113 schools that are within 10km of the electricity grid to be connected to the power network.

The estimated cost then, he said, was RM50 million.

The ministry, Manyin told the assembly, failed to respond to the proposal.

As politicians work to resolve the standoff, teachers and activists will continue to pool money to bring light to Sarawak’s off-grid schools. – November 12, 2018.