Veteran Sabah politician Dr Jeffrey Kitingan said this in a strongly-worded statement today over the seizure of more than RM114 million by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) from two top officers at the Sabah Water Department (SWD), allegedly involved in corrupt practices.
“The blow-up and ramifications from the MACC swoop on the SWD and the seizure of more than RM114 million has fully justified our calls for administrative reforms in the workings of the federal-funded development projects in Sabah as well as the channelling of all development funds to the Sabah Government for implementation,” the Bingkor assemblyman said.
Praising the MACC for its actions related to the SWD corruption probe, Kitingan said the agency should now widen its net and investigate the alleged corruption in other state departments, agencies and government-linked companies.
Kitingan, who is the president of the newly-rebranded Parti Solidariti Tanah Airku, also called on the Federal Government to stop “usurping the authority of Sabah and creating a parallel government in the process”.
“Whatever has been practised in the past, there is no justification whatsoever for the Federal Government to approve and implement federal projects in Sabah and ignore the Sabah government and not channel the funds to the Sabah Government,” Kitingan said, emphasising that the federalisation of projects must stop.
“With that, all the federal departments and agencies in Sabah, which have similar Sabah departments and agencies, should be withdrawn immediately and their duties handed over to be carried out by their Sabah counterparts.”
Kitingan also urged the Sabah Government to insist on administrative and fund management reforms as part of the autonomy Prime Minister Najib Razak had promised to Sabah and Sarawak, besides the devolution of powers.
“This must be done or else the lack of coordination will allow the loopholes and abuse to continue and be exploited by the Federal Government and federal leaders.”
Calling for transparency, accountability and good governance to be the rule of the day in Sabah, Kitingan said Putrajaya must stop “playing politics with federal funds”.
“The Federal Government must not try to leverage the decision in the awarding of projects and the use of development funds as these funds belong to the people of Malaysia and the Umno/Barisan Nasional (BN) government is merely the government of the day, as well as trustees and custodians of these funds.”
He added that an autonomous Sabah Government, entrusted with the management of development funds, will be able to chart the state’s own course to meet local needs and requirements which are very different from those in the peninsula.
Kitingan said the present outdated and centrally-controlled funding, with a lack of oversight and monitoring, may have contributed to the alleged corruption and seizure of more than RM114 million in cash and assets from the top two officers of the Sabah Water Department.