PUTRAJAYA, March 1 — The Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) has agreed to allocate RM7 million to assist small and medium construction companies speed up Covid-19 screening for their foreign workers.
Senior Minister (Works) Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof said although the Social Security Organisation (Socso) had been conducting Covid-19 screening for foreign workers, the developers needed to pay for it first but the small and medium companies could not afford to do that.
“Covid-19 screening is crucial for foreign workers to reduce the risk of the viral infection at the construction sites.
“Now we see that the construction sector is active again but at the same time, the challenge is ensuring adherence to the standard operating procedure (SOP) as this sector is the second biggest contributor of Covid-19 positive cases.”
He said this at a press conference after Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin delivered his One-Year Malaysia Prihatin keynote address to mark his first anniversary in office as the prime minister.
According to Fadillah, the country’s construction industry suffered losses amounting to RM11.6 billon in the first month of implementation of the movement control order in March last year.
Later at a press conference at the ministry’s headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, Fadillah said a subsidy of RM50 each was given to every foreign construction personnel with valid registration with CIDB to undergo the Covid-19 screening managed by CIDB Holdings Sdn Bhd through a list of panel clinics.
He said the incentive would be implemented via two methods, namely, screening at the construction site if there were more than 30 applicants and drive-through screening using the RTK-Antigen test kit, of which the result could be obtained within 30 minutes.
“The actual cost set is RM100 for the registered foreign construction workers with RM50 borne by CIDB while the unregistered ones have to pay the full charge of RM100,” he added.
Meanwhile, CIDB chief executive Datuk Ir. Ahmad ‘Asri Abdul Hamid said besides encouraging the employers to send their construction workers for Covid-19 screening, the one-off subsidy was also aimed at encouraging more of the unregistered ones to register themselves with CIDB.
He said so far, 140,000 individuals had registered with CIDB and if there was a need, CIDB would ask for an additional allocation fr the Covid-19 screening test subsidy.
Employers can register their workers for screening at https://admin.cswms.com.my/ and for further information, call 03-40428880.
Meanwhile, information on the Construction Industry SOP and Guidelines can be obtained from the CIDB Malaysia website at www.cidb.gov.my/ms/pkp-kebenaran-peranan or via its official Telegram at https://t.me/cidbmy or call the CIDB hotline, 03-55673300. — Bernama
