May 31, 2008 20:32 PM

Fed Devt Dept Scrapped, Cabinet Committee On Illegal Immigrants Formed – Abdullah

KOTA KINABALU, May 31 (Bernama) — The 17-year wait by state government leaders to scrap the Sabah Federal Development Department ended Saturday when Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced the good news.

Following the abolition with immediate effect, Sabah State Development Office would handle the Prime Minister’s special allocations and monitor implementation and progress of federal government projects.

Abdullah, who met state government leaders and senior state government officials, also announced the formation of a cabinet committee on illegal immigrants to be chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak to discuss and solve the perennial illegal immigrants’ problem in the state.

The committee, comprising several Sabah leaders, would seek solutions to the problem, particularly foreigners holding the “IMM13” a document in lieu of passport issued by the Immigration Department to Filipino refugees which permits them to remain in Sabah, he told a media conference.

The prime minister also announced a RM1 billion allocation from the prime minister’s special allocation to be distributed according to development requirements in Sabah and the appointment of Sabah-born Professor Datuk Kamaruzaman Ampong as the new vice-chancellor of Universiti Malaysia Sabah would take effect on June 18.

Yusuf Saringgit, another Sabah-born was appointed to an important post. He was named the new Sabah Federal Financial Officer effective Sunday.

He also announced that a 300MW (Megawatt) power station would be built in Kimanis, Papar, under a joint venture with Petronas and Sabah Foundation.

State Barisan Nasional (BN) component party leaders, who met Abdullah here on April 17, had unanimously asked for the abolition of the Sabah Federal Development Department and its operations be placed directly under the state government’s supervision.

The department was set up in January 1991 under the Implementation Coordination Unit in the Prime Minister’s Department when Sabah was governed by Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) which was then in the Opposition.

PBS pulled out from BN in July 1990 but was readmitted into the coalition on Feb 23 2002. The department was established to plan, coordinate and monitor implementation of federal government development projects in Sabah.

At the press conference Saturday, Abdullah explained that he decided to abolish the department after considering the state government’s request.

With the abolition of the department, the Sabah State Development Office has been established with the same roles and functions with that of the state development offices in other states.

With the abolition, officers and staff, about 70 per cent of whom are locals, would be transferred to district offices, with their emolument totalling RM1.69 million a year, borne by the federal government, he said.

The Sabah Federal Development Department has four divisions — administration and finance, planning, coordination and implementation and technical.

Besides the head office in Kota Kinabau, it has branch offices in Kudat, Sandakan, Tawau, Kota Belud and Beaufort and a sub-office in Keningau under the administration of the Beaufort office.

From 1996 to 1999, the department received allocations totalling RM770.83 million from several ministries and federal departments to implement various development projects in the state.

Under the Ninth Malaysia plan, Sabah has been allocated RM20.1 billion to carry out various infrastructure and social development projects including eradicating hardcore poverty by 2010.

The allocation was supposed to be channelled through the Sabah Federal Development Department.

Following scrapping of the department and increased roles and functions of the district offices in Sabah, Abdullah said district officers and assistant district officers would be given additional management training by the Public Service Department in efforts to strengthen the district offices.

On the illegal immigrants’ problem, the prime minister said the setting up of the higher-level committee was necessary as it was a major problem and was not easy to settle.

Local political leaders and opposition parties had voiced concerns over the illegal immigrants’ problem and they wanted the federal government to set up a royal commission of inquiry to get to the bottom of the issue and come up with the best solution.

The illegal immigrants’ issue was the main campaign material of the opposition parties in the last general election.

On Wednesday, Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman said arrests of illegal immigrants were continuing and last year alone, a total of 26,332 of them were rounded up and 18,707 deported.

Between January and March this year, 5,256 illegals were detained and 4,089 were sent back to their country of origin.

Musa estimated that there are 440,000 illegals in Sabah, of whom 230,000 are foreign workers, 80,000 Filipino refugees and 130,000 illegal immigrants.

To address the illegal immigrants’ issue, the National Security Council had increased the number of temporary detention centres in Sabah from three to five — in Papar and Sandakan.

Abdullah, who is also Finance Minister, said the additional RM1 billion allocation for Sabah was approved by the Cabinet to expedite development in rural areas with infrastructure projects for parliamentary constituencies.

The prime minister also said a masterplan for the development of downstream petroleum and petrochemical industries would be drawn up for Sabah.

Abdullah also reminded the state government to speedily approve big-scale agriculture development projects especially projects associated with the food security plan and projects for renewable energy sources.

Asked on his aspirations following abolition of the Federal Development Department, he said: “I hope with this change what the Sabah people wanted with regard to channelling of funds will benefit them.”

“I also hope district offices will increase their efficiency,” he said, referring to the additional workload shouldered by the offices with the channelling of funds for development projects through the offices.

Meanwhile, the Implementation Coordination Unit (ICU) said a panel, jointly chaired by the state secretary and Sabah Federal Secretary, had been set up to streamline functions said to be overlapping with the federal and state agencies.

It also explained that the “Focus Group” on poverty established by the government in efforts to wipe out abject poverty and reduce poverty rate would focus on poverty eradication in Sabah and Sarawak.

The census on hardcore poor and poor families is expected to be completed in June.

To ensure balanced distribution of allocations, the government through ICU would use a new distribution formula based on population, size of state/district, level of development of a state and poverty rate.

This formula would be used for development allocations to be disbursed, the ICU said in a statement.

— BERNAMA