The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) today said that ministry officials should stop laying the blame at the feet of the Public Works Department (PWD) every time a project is delayed or experiences difficulties.

Its chairperson Nur Jazlan Mohamed said that PAC is “fed up” and “will no longer accept” such excuses from various ministry officials.

“Every ministry has their supervising officers for the projects that come under them. They are after all the clients, and they need to prepare a thorough user requirement for the projects,” he said.

He said from next year, supervising officers for projects coming under different ministries will be made responsible for projects hitting a snag.

“You are talking about normal construction of roads and schools. These are pretty basic stuff. We have been doing it for years,” he said.

Nur Jazlan said this after chairing a PAC meeting on the construction of the East Coast Expressway in the Parliament building today.

The RM2.9 billion highway has been delayed by more than five years now, and Nur Jazlan said today that the delay was caused by a change in scope, when the federal government decided that the project would be a tolled road and not a normal federal highway road.

“The highway should now be completed by September 2014,” he said.

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