Penguang, flanked by Loh (back, fourth left) and Ting, in a group photo with the top teams.
SIBU (Jan 14): The move by the Sarawak government to provide grants to local authorities (PBTs) starting this year is meant to help to reduce their financial burden.
In stating this, Deputy Minister of Public Health, Housing and Local Government Datuk Dr Penguang Manggil said this would also increase the PBTs’ revenue, thus allowing them to provide better services to the people in their respective jurisdictions.
“That’s the idea because way back in 2017, the government waived the assessment rates for all longhouses and residential properties with annual assessment rate of below RM50.
“Some are given discounted rates. So, in order to compensate for the losses from all these assessment rates, et cetera, the government has decided to provide grants to the PBTs.
“The PBTs today are not like they were 20 years ago, because now they give more services to the people and the people have also become very demanding – they want all kinds of services that involve expenses and money.
“So, the state government has come up with some options to increase PBTs revenue,” he told reporters when met after officiating at the prize-giving ceremony for a recycling competition at Sibu Islamic Complex here today.
Asked about the amount, Penguang said he was not sure of the allocations meant to be distributed to the PBTs.
“What I know is that the amount given by the government is meant to replace the amount that we can no longer collect from the people of Sarawak.”
Meanwhile, a total of 42 secondary and primary schools from the central region took part in the competition.
Overall, the participants collected 126,424kg of recyclable materials, up from 80,800kg recorded last year.
Penguang commended the organiser for the effort to instil in the students and the local community the sense of environmentalism and environmental protection.
“This will reduce the impact on the environment and the climate—that’s the goal. Even though this is a very small step, this is a very important step for us to nurture environmentalism in school students and the people, and even those from the PBTs.
“As we know, now that the majority or 40 per cent of the waste is from domestic waste, and the goal is to reduce this waste from being ended up in landfills or dump sites,” he said.
In the secondary school category, SMK Tong Hua from Bintangor won, with SMK Methodist Sibu and SMK Kampung Nangka, also from Sibu, placing second and third respectively.
In the primary school category, the winning team was from SJKC Tiong Ho in Sarikei, with SJKC Hang Kwong and SJKC Nang Kiang, both from Sibu, placing second and third respectively.
The winning team of each category took home RM1,000, while the first and second runners-up received RM800 and RM600 respectively.
Also present were Ministry of Public Health, Housing and Local Government permanent secretary Datu Elizabeth Loh, and Sibu Municipal Council chairman Clarence Ting.
