Excellence award for seven local authorities, dept
SEVEN local authorities (PBTs) and a state department under the Ministry of Local Government and Housing were given the Excellence Award in Financial Management based on the National Audit Department’s Accountability Index in 2015.
Its minister, Datuk Seri Panglima Haji Hajiji Haji Noor, said the PBTs were the district councils of Keningau, Beaufort, Kota Marudu, Penampang, Sipitang, Tambunan and the Tawau Municipal Council while the department was the Department of Town and Regional Planning (JPBW).
“In fact, the Keningau District Council scored the highest marks at the national level with 98.34%,” he added while winding up the debate on his ministry for the 2017 State Budget.
Hajiji stated that this year, JPBW together with the WWF-Malaysia and the Semporna district office was given the International Planning Excellence Award by the Royal Town Planning Institute of London for its Semporna Marine Spatial Plan project.
“This award is a recognition on the capability and expertise of the Sabah government in town planning in terms of livability, competitiveness and environment-friendliness,” he pointed out.
Hajiji also revealed that beginning October this year, all PBTs in Sabah had implemented the e-Payment system with the co-operation of CIMB.
“To familiarize Sabahans with the usage of JomPay, we are conducting a six-month awareness campaign for all households and commercial premises within the rating areas of PBTs,” he said.
He added that the implementation of the e-Payment system was an encouraging achievement because Sabah had become a model, being the first state to implement it whereby all states were required to do so by the Malaysian Department of Local Government.
“Not only that, the Tawau Municipal Council received the CIMB Award for being the Best Plug & Pay Implementing PBT throughout Malaysia 2016 while the Sandakan Municipal Council received the Best e-Payment Implementation Award 2016 for Sabah,” he stated.
Meanwhile, the minister also revealed that the Federal Government had allocated RM143.86 million to the Ministry of Local Government and Housing this year for distribution to all PBTs in the State.
“Out of this amount, RM35.86 million was for annual grant for operational costs, RM72.39 million for minor projects, RM34.64 million for rates assistance, and RM957,000 for landscaping,” he explained.
He pointed out that the federal assistance would go a long way in helping Sabah PBTs to uplift their services to the public, including in terms of urban well-being and safety.
Under the 2017 State Budget, the ministry was given RM100.7 million out of which RM83.05 million was for supply or recurring expenditure and RM17.02 million for development expenditure.
Source: Borneo Post
