The completion of a government project that was intended to ease the rakyat should’ve been a cause for celebration, but a recently-completed project in Sarawak has raised some questions.
On Friday (8 April), Corporate Communication JKR Sarawak shared a few images of the completed wooden jetty at Kampung Mutap in Bekenu, Sarawak. At first glance, it did not seem like a big deal but according to the caption of the post, the project, which was under the supervision of JKR Miri cost an amount of RM50,000!
“With the completion of this jetty, it is expected to ease the lives of the residence in Kampung Mutap especially during the flood as the people here will use the river as an alternative route to Bekenu Market.”
The project kickstarted on 7 March and was expected to complete on 6 June this year. However, they were way ahead of schedule as it took them only 1 month to complete the wooden jetty.
The cost and the outcome of the wooden jetty have caused the netizens to sarcastically question its quality.
“Congratulations JKR! Your project is great and should be on the world’s record. You should come up with more projects like these, we are amused.”
“Think positive. The seabed might be as deep as 10 metres with piling works.”
“Must be a good quality wood. It won’t rot and it’s waterproof.”
“Congratulations. This is the benchmark for future projects.”
Some have also said that it looks like an RM5,000 project.
“Let’s see if it collapses when a boat crashes into it.”
“Looks more like an RM5,000 project.”
“The price of a concrete jetty and you got a wooden jetty.”
Just last night (10 April), JKR Sarawak took to its Facebook account and clarified the cost of the wooden jetty.
“JKR Sarawak’s estimated cost is based on the JKR Sarawak Schedule of Rates of the year 2020 with a rate of RM9,000 per meter cube for belian timber.”
They also mentioned that they had visited the village in September last year & steel jetty was initially proposed, which was eventually rejected by the head of the village, as well as being too expensive for their allocated budget of RM50,000.
It is also revealed that the head of the village agreed to the design that is within the allocated budget.
Do you think that the relevant parties could’ve come up with a better design with an amount of RM50,000 in their budget?
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