KOTA SAMARAHAN, Dec 15 — Coordination between implementing agencies at the federal and state levels must be further improved to ensure accurate information on the progress of federal government projects in Sarawak, said Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof.

The Deputy Prime Minister said that poor coordination could result in discrepancies between information provided by federal agencies and that of their state counterparts.

"Most of the issues involve updating the project status. Sometimes, at the ministry level, the data is based on what has been inputted. However, during meetings, we find that certain projects have already started but the updates have not been made,” he told a press conference after chairing a coordination meeting on the status of development projects and programmes in Sarawak here today.

Fadillah said better coordination would ensure efficient use of allocations and timely implementation of projects, besides facilitating monitoring to address challenges in project execution.

"And as usual, we will face various challenges. From the reports presented (at the meeting), there are still some projects from the 10th Malaysia Plan that have yet to be completed,” he said.

Fadillah, who oversees the status of projects in Sabah and Sarawak, said that 11 ‘sick’ projects have been identified in Sarawak, and various measures have been taken to resolve the issues.

However, he emphasised that the number of sick projects is relatively small compared to the many federal projects progressing on schedule in the state.

"Some of these sick projects can be salvaged and completed, but there are cases where contract termination must be considered due to contractors failing to deliver. These projects will need to be re-tendered,” he added. — Bernama