PKR Supreme Council member cum PKR Sabah Secretary Dr Roland Chia is deeply sad and angry with the failure of computer lab projects in Sabah. It is a “failure” because only two of the 300 labs were ready in December 2010.
According to the 2010 Auditor-General’s Report. One of the schools that was singled out was out Sekolah Kebangsaan Kepayan, Penampang which is in the vicinity of the capital city
He singled this out while attending as the guest for a PKR wanita dinner function that was held in Putera Ballroom on the 28 October 2011 which was also graced by Yb Zuraida kamarudin , National Wanita Chief and also Member of Parliament of Ampang. In attendance was also Pn Christina Liew – KK Division Chairlady. The organizing chairladies were Pn Winnie Juani & Pn Edith Poigi.
The auditor report also said that the stock of ICT equipment untouched for three years. “The equipment was found in the original packaging and was not disbursed because 99.3% of the computer labs were incomplete,” In addition – it was mentioned that “A portion of these labs are also suffering damages from termite infestation,” it said.
Accordingly to Auditor General’s report, the RM160.74 million project in Sabah for building and equipping 300 computer labs for primary and secondary schools has failed miserably. Only 2 computer labs have been completed and handed over to the Ministry of Education. . “This is despite a six-month extension and after RM98.9 million (86%) of the RM113.73 million was spent on the construction cost,” the report said. The project was purportedly awarded to TimeCom Holdings Sdn Bhd and is supposed to last for 18 months from Oct 31, 2006 to Apr 30, 2008. After prolonged delays, only 2 of the labs were completed as of 2010 with the others in various stages of construction. “This failure to meet the deadline has resulted in the Education Ministry incurring RM3.17 million in liquidated and ascertained damages for the period between Nov 1, 2008 and May 11, 2009. However, the ministry has terminated this contract in March 2010.” The audit report stated that the hiring of an untrustworthy contractor had prevented Sabah from implementing the teaching and learning of information and communication technology (ICT) in its schools.
With regards to implementation of ICT in rural schools, Dr Roland Chia has received numerous complaints from the PKR divisions that most of the computer labs were non functioning as there were facing difficulties in electricity connection from the Sabah Eletricity Sdn Bhd authorities. In addition to that, the labs were rendered useless, as many of these rural students struggled even to go to schools due to high transportation cost – who lived more than 20km from the nearest schools. This definitely does not augur well with the 1-Malaysia concept of Rakyat Didahulukan Pencapaian Diutamakan.
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