Sabah, S’wak have never been sidelined in rural road projects, says Tengku Zafrul

Sabah and Sarawak have never been sidelined in rural road development, with allocations for the two states set to nearly triple between 2023 and 2027 compared with the preceding five years, says the prime minister’s senior political adviser, Tengku Zafrul Aziz.

He said rural road expenditure will total RM11 billion for the 2023-2027 period, including allocations for this year and next year, compared with RM3.7 billion between 2018 and 2022.

The increase reflected the government’s commitment to rural infrastructure development, particularly in Sabah and Sarawak, which receive about half of the country’s total rural road expenditure each year, he said in a social media post.

Tengku Zafrul said actual expenditure on rural road development in the two states reached RM1.41 billion this year, the highest in a decade.

“Since 2023, RM4.6 billion has been spent. Each year, Sabah and Sarawak receive about half of the country’s total rural road expenditure. Sabah and Sarawak have not been sidelined. They have been prioritised.

On the deferment of several rural road projects, the former investment, trade and industry said the move should be viewed in the context of national fiscal management and rising contractual commitments that had exceeded the original allocations approved by Parliament.

He said rural road expenditure had exceeded the original parliamentary allocations every year since 2022, resulting in mounting contractual commitments and outstanding payments to contractors.

The finance ministry, therefore, had to balance the funding requirements of all ministries, including those responsible for health, education, and rural development.

“When a ministry makes commitments beyond its approved allocation, the finance ministry has to find ways to cover the shortfall.

“In this case, the prime minister, in his capacity as the finance minister, approved an additional RM500 million in expenditure for 2026, using savings from the development allocations of other ministries to settle outstanding payments to contractors,” he said.

Tengku Zafrul stressed the deferment of new contracts did not mean existing projects had been cancelled, adding that the finance ministry had never issued any directive to terminate them.

Instead, he said, the deferment was intended to prevent outstanding payments from mounting further and ensure the government’s financial commitments remained under control.

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