KUCHING: Unpaid Class E and F contractors are frustrated with the implementation of the stimulus economic pakages during the implementation of the current movement control order (MCO) and they are now seeking assistance from the government, said Datuk Sylvester Entri Muran.
“It came to my knowledge that there are 279 Class F and Class E contractors with a total amount of RM7,605,707.43 unpaid claims for their works done for the repairs of houses under the ‘Program Bantuan Rumah-Program Perumahan Rakyat Termiskin (PPRT)’. The projects were implemented in the year 2018-2019,” said Entri, the former State Assemblyman for Marudi via a press statement today.
Entri said these projects were coordinated by Felcra Berhad, under the Ministry of Rural Development and Felcra os an organisation responsible for the payment of contractors’ claims for the work done, completed and certified by the respective District officers or technical staff in the respective Districts in Sarawak
These contractors had spent their own money for the capital to undertake the projects.
They were small-time contractors and projects awarded to them were based on cast-lots by the respective Residents, he said
The recently announced Economic Stimulus Package under both the ‘Bantuan Prihatin Nasional’ (BPN) and additional allocation under the PKS (Small and Medium Enterprise) due to the Covid-19 pandemic had left all the affected small-time contractors frustrated, he said.
“And it seems that the government has totally over looked their plight. They had spent their own money to complete the projects, certified satisfactorily by the entrusted government agencies and yet they have not been paid a single cent by the government authority.”
“They had suffered financially to recover their capitals, to pay their suppliers, workers and earn little from small projects under Class E and Class F contarctors. Worst of all, under the BPN, some or all of them might not be eligible to receive assistance, as their records in the Inland Revenue Board may indicated that they do not meet the set criteria,” he said.
“Their sufferings are not only at the time of Covid-19 pandemic but much earlier when they were not paid on satisfactory completion of the projects,” he added.
“The government seems to have ignored their plight and they did not know where else should they voice out their difficulties and hardships to recover the money they had spent primarily to undertake small projects from the goverment.”
These small contractors pay their taxes, renewal fees for their licences, training fees to upgrade their skills and knowledge and other related matters, Entri said.
“They dare not make noises lest they be barred from future participation in the government contract.
The government either the State or Federal must take the responsibility to assist these small contractors to recover their unpaid claims for the work done.
It was really unfair for them not be paid on time, when they have completed their projects as scheduled.”
If the projects were not completed on time, they were charged with penalty but in this scenario, these “oppressed” contractors should be allowed to do the same by way of surcharging the government for the delay and negligence in not paying them on time and within a specific period, he said.
Entri urged the government to really look into the plight of the ” oppressed” and ignored voices of these small contractors.
The government must find ways and means to settle the unpaid claims by these small contractors, which is only fair, as the payments are for jobs done and certified by the authorities concerned, said Entri who is a former Assistant Agriculture Minister and former Assistant Public Utilities Minister.
They might even be deprived of the chance to receive the current government economic stimulus packages, he added.-pr/BNN
