Chong (second left) at the press conference with his assistants Sim Kiat Leng (second right) and Soo Tien Ren (left) and DAP Socialist Youth (Dapsy) organising secretary Anthony Chin Fang Chi.
KUCHING (Jan 29): The RM4.2 million allocation for Stampin parliamentary constituency for the year 2023 has been utilised for various purposes particularly education, said Stampin MP Chong Chieng Jen.
Chong pointed out that like all parliamentary constituencies’ service centres, Stampin Parliamentary Constituency Service Centre had been granted two allocations namely the Outright Grant (OG) allocation of RM2.2 million and the Project Mesra Rakyat (PMR) allocation of RM2 million.
“As at Dec 15 last year, the service centre has disbursed RM2,194,807.95 of its OG allocation and approved RM1,981,400 of the PMR projects allocation.
“The utilisation rate for the constituency allocation by Stampin Parliamentary constituency was 99.4 per cent,” he told a press conference at DAP Sarawak headquarters here today.
He said the disclosure of the allocation utilisation was in compliance with the principles of accountability and transparency under the Madani government.
Chong, who is DAP Sarawak chairman, said under the OG allocation, the service centre received 882 applications of which RM1,078,300 (49.1 per cent) was for education purposes, RM937,007.95 (42.7 per cent) was for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and charitable activities, and RM179,500 (8.2 per cent) for healthcare purpose.
“For education purposes, among the new programmes we have carried out is the reward for students who scored good results in their Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) and Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia (STPM) as well as our Tertiary Education Financial Assistance Fund, which is an annual grant for students from low-income families who are pursuing their studies at local universities,” he said.
For the PMR allocation, he said a total of 28 projects successfully secured funding where RM1,941,400 or 98 per cent were allocated for education purposes while RM40,000 was for the village development security committee (JKKK) of a village under the constituency.
“The RM1.94 million allocation was mainly given to schools for the upgrading of their facilities, particularly the purchase of Smart TVs for teachers to facilitate their teaching and to make lessons more interesting for the students especially those in primary schools,” he said.
“We will continue with these programmes and projects this year after we have received allocation from the federal government,” he said.
Chong also said that the RM4.2 million allocation covered three state constituencies namely Batu Kawa, Batu Kitang and Kota Sentosa.
“If you compare this allocation to that of state elected representatives (ADUNs) of Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), they are allocated RM9 million for each state constituency annually,” he said.
He urged the ADUNs to disclose the utilisation of their constituency’s allocation.
“This is so that the people will know what their elected representatives are using the allocation granted by the government for,” he said.