Tiong while inspecting the delayed school project at Sebauh (left) and Kampong Baru (right).

BINTULU - The Bintulu Member of Parliament, Dato' Seri Tiong King is urging the contractors awarded the works to develop SMK Sebauh and SMK Baru here to be aware of their responsibilities to accomplish the jobs promptly.

He was saddened to note that the contractors had failed to understand the urgency for the projects to be expedited and had caused inconvenience to hundreds of students of the two schools.

"Students of SMK Sebauh need to be moved out to a better place from their present site which had been flood-prone while those studying under SMK Baru had to squat at other schools to enable them to continue with their study," he lamented.

When visiting the site for the proposed SMK Baru building recently, he was skeptical with the claims of the contractors that their workers were working overtime until night to expedite the completion.

"Looking at the surroundings, I could not see any spotlight that are normally installed and lighted to facilitate works at night and how could they claimed that they also worked at night here?" he questioned.

Although the the completion of the project was due in February 2003, Tiong said that the temporary site for the SMK Baru students to study had burnt down June this year and this signify an urgency to have the project to be completed earlier than the due date.

On SMK Sebauh new premise project, he was dissappointed to note that the project had been progressing at a very slow rate and he had learnt that the contractor started to commence with the land clearing task only recently.

When visiting the site, he found out that there was only only one tractor and an excavator presence with no work being carried out, while the date of commencement and completion were left blank on the signboard.

Acting on previous complaints on the matter, Tiong said that he had written to the Education Ministry but yet to receive any reply. Nevertheless, he pledged to check with the Ministry on the status of the project on his next trip to Kuala Lumpur.

In the meantime, he also hoped for the Education Ministry and the departments to take a firm stand against the contractors that had failed to meet the requirements after being awarded with their projects.

"The failure of the contractors to fulfill the rquirements under the contract awarded to them would tarnish the image of the Barisan Nasional government if continued to be left unchecked," said Tiong.