CLEAR DRAINS IN PREPARATION FOR MAY FLOODING: PRITCHARD GUMBARIS

by Sugatman
PENAMPANG 29 MAR 2019

Political Secretary to Penampang MP,  Pritchard Gumbaris today chaired a meeting at District Council Meeting Room to get all the relevant authorities to prepare flood mitigation measures including clearing all existing drains from any blockages.
He said there should not be a repeat of last year flood on May 31 where actions were taken only after Penampang residents have lost millions in damaged properties submerged by the flood.

Present in the meeting were representatives from MP174, N19 Kepayan, N20 Moyog, Council EO, District Officer, District Engineers of  JKR, JPS, Bomba, UPPM Moyog and Kepayan, Chairman or representatives of all MPKKs in the district, and four concession contractors awarded to maintain major drains.

Pritchard said the people will fault all government authorities if no effort is seen in clearing all drains because the month of April and May is usually the flood season while cleaning works is best done during the dry season.
He also requested for grassroot feedbacks from the MPKK where are the flood prone areas. The top 10 includes Kibabaig, Boliga, Kolopis, Siga roundabout, Jln Tai Pek Kung, Bundusan Plaza, Kohizan, Kg Sugud amongst others.

JKR reported there is a resident who closed the drainage for his access road justifying he does not want the flood to flow  through his premises and the representative pledge to meet the owner and assess the situation.

All MPKKs were urged to carry out their own gotong royong to clear their drains and to seek assistance from the council such as when excavators are needed.

Kampung Tinduuzon reported that two long drains up to 2 km long has never been cleared and now fully silted as well as full of lalang.

Drainage department said the MPKK must resubmit applications so that they can check under whose jurisdiction to maintain the drains and they can apply for allocations.

Another kampung reported having written to UPPM regarding a drain where the concrete sides have collapsed and the banks eroded.
The representatives of concessionaires said they will check under whose contracts is responsible for carrying out these works. !!

Kampung Guunsing says they have been suffering from floods since 1980 because the existing drains are not even connected to Parit Juta !!! And no respond to their application for upgrading of the drains causing a bottleneck of drainage flow.

JKR informed that road drains are designed to clear water from roads only but they do not know which catchment flood flow to their drains.

Globinaco informed their drain clearing concession carry out two cycles per year viz January/June and July/December.

MPKK Kibabaig reported the drains along Jln Panglima Banteng is always blocked that the water flows across the road. The Lomunu area also are not connected to the main drain while the earth drains near the hills are always silted. He recommended a box culvert should be built across the road.

JKR reported that the land acquisition cost is too big that the project may be KIVed.

JPS reported that the drain next to the stadium is already completed.

MPKK Sugud reported the status of river bank enlargement is still unknown and the river is flowing in unknown directions.Worse areas affected are transformer station, Kg Kondis, Kondohon and Tampasak and the school compound.  A bridge structure which is too small also cause a bottleneck in the flow of water. The concession contractors also requested their work should connect to the outfall of the drains and must have SOP where all the rubbish and silt from the drains are carted away to their dump instead of leaving them at the side of the drains.

Terawi MPKK reported about a road to Terawi Tengah used by students to the school which became narrow due to digging and filling. This is to be reported to UPKM.

Ramaya reported that on left and right side of Pan Borneo highway, the grass that was cut were left to rot inside the drain.

The chairman urged that all the works should be completed by end of April, MPKK can do gotong royong around their Dewans and write in to the council for assistance to dispose the rubbish collected and insure all drains are clear of rubbish.  All works done must be photographed so that the rakyat knows what is going on and even if some flooding occurs, they will know that all the best efforts have been done.

HERE are some SUGAT questiions:

1.  After 56 years of Malaysia,  some departments and contractors still talking about identifying whose job is it to clean up what drains?? Should not it be a case where  the name of road and drains is mention, everyone should know whose job it is??

2.  After 56 years of Malaysia,  we are still talking about asking for allocations from state or federal every now and then, should not it be that all departments have fixed allocation ready to maintain all drains under their jurisdiction instead of begging through state ADUN or federal MP everytime a drain gets blocked or silted?

3.  Should not ALL drains be clean at ALL times instead of cleaning it up before an impending rainy seasons, considering that we really cannot predict when the rain and flood is coming,  maybe tomorrow their will be a flood?

VERY FUNNY HOW ASIAN COUNTRIES GET WORKS DONE... indeed.

By Sugatman.

NO STRESS, NO WORRIES: YB JENIFER LASIMBANG

ON RECENT MEDIA BACKLASH ABOUT PARENTS ASKING JOBS FOR THEIR UNEMPLOYED GRADUATE CHILDREN

23 Mar 2019 by Sugatman

 

Enjoying time with a mother at Kampung Tuaui coinciding with World Water Day

I am not stressed at all by all the brickbats, attacks and criticism resulting from my latest comments on facebook about parents calling me for jobs for their unemployed graduate children, said Assemblywoman for Moyog Jenifer Lasimbang. 

The fact is that I have advised all of them to register their names on a job site to increase their chances of getting a job based on their qualifications.  Instead some parents say their children do not know how to enter the website. When ask what degree their children have, the answer included degree in computer science!  Maybe they want the jobs brought to them on a plate without applications and interviews, she said.

A few months after we formed the new government,  MP Darrel Leiking and I opened a job fair at KDCA hall where more than 3000 jobs of all kinds were being offered by over 30 companies opening booths.  There were not many parents with their unemployed graduated children coming to look for jobs then, she said.

Instead a horde of reporters from Malaya came and were more interested to ask MP Darrel if he deserved his datukship, rather than talking about jobs.

 Similarly, those who have attacked me on facebook are mostly cybertroopers from Malaya, she said.

However, these apparent negative publicity instead brought positive results when some potential employers rang my office to inquire about the list of these graduates, she said.

As for the opposition leaders who have strongly criticised me in all media, they should instead show how many jobs they have given to the graduates during the 30 years they were running the government, she concluded.   by Sugatman.

Sabah Govt Pensioners Association Courtesy Visit to District Officer Penampang 6 Mar 2019

Souvenir

Seated from left: Joseph Jominol (Penampang Committe Head of Pensioners), DO Robert Stidi, Quirine Angkangon (Secretary)

Standing: Paul Siowou, Raymond Dunung, Lawrence Missi (Dep Chair)

PENAMPANG.  Sabah Government Pensioners Association was established on 24 December 1998 and the early Presidents were Terence Liau,  Dr Florentius Epin, and Datuk Wilfred Lingham (present), said Joseph Jominol when briefing District Officer of Penampang, Robert Stidi on Wednesday 6 Mar 2019. He also briefed on all the activities of the association especially regarding the health and welfare of members. Meetings once every two months and BGM every two years.

The association is currently in search for their own HQ while meetings are held in private meeting halls.  As the association were ex-public servants, DO said the committee may use the District Office small meeting room for at most 2 hours upon application by letter.

Meanwhile DO Robert informed the association of his plans to elevate the district to a municipality as it has met the criteria of having more than 150 thousand residents and a revenue of more than 20 million per year. This will improve the services of the Council with more manpower positions with additions of a legal officer and staff. He said he had already served in public service for 26 years and will retire in 8 years. Meanwhile he vowed to do his best for Penampang which is his own home town after having served in other districts including Nabawan, Beaufort, Tambunan and also posted to JKR in 1999.

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Regarding the illegal sundry shops in the district mostly operated by foreigners, mostly Pakistanis, DO informed a written notice of closure will be posted on all the 32 shops found by the Council as flouting all the trading license Laws.  If the owners and operators still ignore the notice and continue operating illegally, then they will be compounded with a lockdown or the premises sealed with padlocks.  If the operators cut through the padlock then a police action will be taken under the law of obstructions of public servants in carrying out their duties.

 

District Officer of Penampang will issue a Closure Notice to all illegal Pakistani sundry shop: Councilor

One illegal sundry shop run by foreigners still open at Jalan Kibambangan despite order to close

5 Mar 2019
PENAMPANG.  Michael, a councilor from MDP here informed the District Officer will issue a closure notice to all the 32 illegal sundry shops which was previously ordered closed upon joint inspection on 27 February this year.  However after the council licencing officers together with other authorities including police, custom, bomba, immigration, lands office, KPDNKK and national registration had left, these shops mostly run by illegal Pakistanis were back to business as usual.

It is still not known what actions will be taken if these shops continue to ignore the orders from the authorities.

Reported on front page of a local paper on 28 February, a former opposition state assemblyman from DAP complaint that all the Pakis were operating as usual along Jalan Panglima Banting where there are 5 shops per km, he said.

Last Wed 27 Feb, the team even arrested two Pakistani, one totally undocumented while the other had an expired passport, but to date no news if these two had been brought to court yet.

The most interesting find was one village shop at Kg Bahang called Kedai Runcit Laina even had a hidden massage room attached to the shop.

At Kg Tunoh, the Pakistani with a passport running Kedai Runcit Mini Everise even challenge the councilor to arrest him and bring him to court.

here are some photographs of the events.

Councilors and officers checking particulars at Jalan Panglima Banting

Third group of inspectors with councilor " Samy Davies"

one of the many sundry shops run by foreigners

Secret door to a massage room

 Inside the massage room

The Paki who challenged Samy Davies