KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Public Works can now call for tenders for procurement to alleviate water issues in the state.
Its minister Datuk Shahelmey Yahya said this was because the federal Works Ministry had excluded value engineering from the pre-procurement process.
By excluding the value engineering process, Shahelmey said the allocation can be channelled to the issuance of acceptance letters of tender.
He was referring to the RM 320 million soft loan for Sabah which was announced about a year ago but has not been utilised.
It has been more than a year since the allocation was announced last June, he said.
"The delays were caused by management levels that needed to be followed in the initial phase, value assessment management, and then there were adjustments to titles and separation or combination of projects, and many other issues.
"These are among the bureaucracy that we faced.
"Alhamdulillah, that has been settled, so the tender procurement process can hopefully go smoothly," he was quoted in the borneopost.com after attending the Putatan Parliament-level Jiwa Komuniti programme at the Taman Serigai People's Housing Project here.
Shahelmey, who is also deputy chief minister, said there are a few documentation matters to be ironed out, and he expected to settle the procurement process by August.