The Sarawak government has insufficient funds for development projects and has to resort to raising US$500 million bonds (RM1.9 billion) overseas, DAP Bandar Kuching MP Chong Chieng Jen claimed today.

Referring to Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud's announcement earlier this week that the state government would be going on a road show in three foreign cities, including Singapore and London, to raise US$500 million bonds for development projects in Sarawak, Chong said it was clear that the state's coffers were running low.

He said the raising of the bonds did not appear to support official speeches made during the recent sitting of the state legislative assembly that one of the grounds given to justify the building of a new RM300 million state assembly building was the state had 'sufficient funds' to do so.

Chong said by raising the bonds which would have to be repaid with interest, every person, including a child, in Sarawak would take on a debt of RM900, based on the state's current population.

He asked the government to list out all the projects to be financed by the money raised through the bonds and also to state whether the contracts of the projects would be tendered out or awarded directly without calling for tender, as in the case of the new state assembly building.

Under the circumstances, the opposition parliamentarian called on the government to scrap the state assembly building project, which he described as a 'white elephant.'

Two CMS projects

He also asked why the bond issue was not discussed nor debated in the recent state assembly meeting as it was obvious that the plan for raising the bonds must have been made months ahead of the chief minister's recent announcement.

On Monday, Taib told reporters that once the exercise in raising the bonds had been completed, he would brief the media on details of the project.

Malaysiakini learnt that among the projects to be financed by the bonds are the state legislative assembly building and a mega convention hall costing about RM300 million which is likely to be awarded to Taib's family-controlled listed company CMS Berhad.

The assembly building project is being constructed on a design-and-build concept in joint venture between CMB Berhad (which holds 55 percent equity) and Naim Cendera Berhad (which holds 45 per cent equity).