'Where did Zahid lie?' Aide hits back at Guan Eng over rural road project claims

PUTRAJAYA – Rural and Regional Development Ministry (KKDW) press secretary Fadzmel Fadzil has defended his minister, Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, over allegations of excessive spending on the Rural Road Project (JALB), which sparked a dispute between Zahid and former finance minister Lim Guan Eng.

Fadzmel said the disputed commitments were outstanding payments carried forward from previous years, including the period when Lim held the finance portfolio.

He said outstanding interim payments to contractors and compensation to landowners had reached RM259.503 million, involving 112 projects as of Sep 30. Many contractors, including Bumiputera contractors, had yet to be paid despite completing the work.

“KKDW had to use its existing internal allocations to settle these outstanding payments.

“When these allocations were redirected, the ministry had to sacrifice the implementation of other important programmes and projects that benefited the people,” he said in a statement on Friday.

Among the affected initiatives, Fadzmel said, was an RM200 million allocation for building and repairing houses for the poor, including the Orang Asli community, as well as assistance for B40 small-scale entrepreneurs, fishermen and farmers.

On claims that the Finance Ministry (MoF) had to take allocations from other ministries to settle the payments, Fadzmel said KKDW was still relying on Spending Approval Letters (SKB) funded through its internal allocations.

“If MoF genuinely wants to provide additional allocations, alhamdulillah. So far, the ministry is still using SKB funded through its internal allocations,” he said.

Fadzmel clarified that all project commitments were made on the approval of MoF and the Economy Ministry, with implementation handled by the Public Works Department (JKR).

However, he alleged that an MoF letter dated Sep 10 instructed spending control measures, including the suspension of Letters of Acceptance (SST) for several projects.

“Not even a single sen of the outstanding payments has been provided, while allocations that had already been approved were instructed to be postponed. That is why we want MoF to clarify how long this postponement will last. A postponement without an end date is equivalent to cancellation,” he said.

He said the uncertainty had affected rural development planning, as the ministry must submit proposals for new projects every year despite the lack of clarity over the implementation of earlier ones.

He added that tender processes for 40 JALB projects worth RM5.14 billion had been cancelled, while SST issuance for another 87 projects worth RM8.1 billion, including those in Sabah and Sarawak, had been postponed.

“So, where did Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid lie? KKDW was merely acting in accordance with the government’s financial procedures,” he said.

Fadzmel also disputed Lim’s remarks that the projects had been implemented, contractors paid and the people had benefited, insisting the claims did not reflect the situation faced by the ministry.

“Rural roads are the lifeline of people in Sabah, Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia, not cheap political ammunition to be dragged into controversy,” he said.

He added that rural communities who depended on road infrastructure for their daily activities would ultimately bear the consequences of the postponements.

Fadzmel said Barisan Nasional (BN) would explain the issue to the public throughout the Melaka state election campaign, as well as to voters in Sarawak.

Lim had earlier questioned KKDW’s spending on JALB projects, alleging that expenditure exceeded the original allocation by RM2.1 billion between 2023 and 2025.

Zahid, however, clarified that the original JALB allocation for the period stood at RM3.982 billion before being revised to RM6.143 billion, while actual expenditure amounted to RM6.108 billion.

On Oct 29, Finance Minister II Datuk Seri Amir Hamzah Azizan announced that MoF had approved an additional RM500 million for KKDW through SKB to help settle outstanding contractor payments, alongside a RM491 million Notice of Change (NOC) approved earlier.