Flood Mitigation Tuan Ibrahim Says Vindicated By Pm S Announcement

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In the aftermath of yet another wave of floods, former environment and water minister Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man said he has been proven right about flood mitigation projects cancelled by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim when he came into power.
In a statement yesterday, he said he had reminded the government that Malaysia could suffer even greater losses than the cost of the projects if they were delayed.
“Today, I have been proven right when it was reported that the country has suffered flood losses in 2023 estimated at RM755.4 million, or 0.04 percent of nominal gross domestic product, including RM120.6 million in agricultural losses.
The flood situation in Sarawak on Feb 3“It wasn’t enough that local rice has become scarce in the market, the production of paddy was also affected by the flood.
“More recently, floods in Sabah and Sarawak have added to the people’s suffering, after Kedah, Kelantan, and Terengganu have also suffered serious flooding in late 2024,” he said in a statement last night.
‘The strange way PM thinks’
He cast Perikatan Nasional as having foresight in protecting the rakyat’s interests, whereas Anwar’s 2022 decision to cancel the projects in 2022 was premature.
“So strange is the way the PMX (Anwar) thinks. After being late for three years, now he realises the importance of flood mitigation projects he had cancelled.
“If he had realised it from the beginning, he wouldn’t be calling the Implementation Coordination Unit director-general until midnight as reported in today’s (Monday’s) news,” he said.
During the Prime Minister’s Department’s monthly assembly yesterday, Anwar reportedly told civil servants that the tender process for flood mitigation projects is taking too much time and has ordered them to be expedited.
“I have requested that, where possible, flexibility be given so that these projects can be expedited through immediate allocations.
“Why do we emphasise the tender process? Because I have observed that when we rely on negotiations, there tends to be excesses and leakages. Therefore, it is best to use the tender system.
ADS“However, tenders can sometimes take too long for ordinary projects and those affected by floods cannot afford to wait,” the New Straits Times quoted him as saying.
Flood mitigation projects worth RM7b cancelled
In December 2022, Anwar halted RM7 billion in flood mitigation projects previously approved under Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s administration, when Tuan Ibrahim held the environment and water portfolio.
The projects were halted on the grounds that they were approved via direct tender.
At the time, Tuan Ibrahim defended the projects saying that direct tenders are justified in emergency situations, and the projects followed the Finance Ministry’s procedures and guidelines. - Mkini

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