Road maintenance cuts threatened for Malaysia

Highway managers in Malaysia face having their road maintenance funding slashed if they do not spend their current budgets. In a surprise announcement this week, the Malaysian government warned that states which “fail to manage and utilise funds allocated for road maintenance from the Federal Government risk having their provisions reduced in the future.”
August 6, 2012 Read time: 2 mins

Highway managers in Malaysia face having their road maintenance funding slashed if they do not spend their current budgets. In a surprise announcement this week, the 3491 Malaysian Government warned that states which “fail to manage and utilise funds allocated for road maintenance from the Federal Government risk having their provisions reduced in the future.”

Prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak is worried that a huge surge in road maintenance funding is not being properly invested. Currently, he said, US$ 828.2 million (RM2,591.3 million) is being allocated by the Malaysian government for road maintenance, compared with US$347.6 million (RM1,087.5 million) six years ago.

“This is an increase of 138%” since 2006, says the prime minister. “On average, the allocation has been increased by 27.6% per annum. However, we find that most of the states have not fully spent the allocation given to them so this situation must be addressed.”

Najib has announced that a “lab” review to develop “comprehensive guidelines on highway management procedures and the proper use of the country’s state road maintenance grant” will take place in October 2012.

“The lab sessions will come up with guidelines to address the issues at hand, and after that, any state that fails to manage this provision well enough may face reduction in the grant (in the future),” the prime minister told reporters after chairing the Malaysian National Finance Council Meeting 2012 this week.

He said the lab reviews will also be asked to “identify the reasons why some states have not fully utilised the grants allocated to them.” The review will report before the end of this year. Prime minister Najib also said that the Malaysian National Finance Council also took note of the auditor-general’s report on the State Road Maintenance Trust Account (Kumpulan Wang Amanah Penyelenggaraan Jalan Raya Negeri) and the Malaysian Road Record Information System (Marris). He said that he is concerned about a report from the country’s Ministry of Finance that has identified “matters which need to be addressed concerning the safety and comfort of road users.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • PPRS: smarter, more sophisticated asset management is needed
    March 27, 2018
    Highway organisations around the world will need ever-more sophisticated frameworks to ensure their asset management is up-to-date and fit-for-purpose. Jacques Tavernier, chairman of PPRS Nice 2018, and Claude van Rooten, president of PIARC, the World Road Association emphasised the point at at this week’s Pavement Preservations and Recycling Summit. A nation’s roads are its first and most important “main asset … essential for a country’s economic, social and environmental development”, said van Roote
    Read More
  • Putin orders doubling road-building in Russia by 2022
    November 21, 2014
    Russia looks set to accelerate its road building programme – Eugene Gerden writes The volume of road building in Russia should be doubled by 2022, according to a recent order of Russia’s president Vladimir Putin. He said, “We need a real breakthrough in road building during the next several years. These volumes should be doubled during the coming decade.”
    Read More
  • Denmark pulls the plug on Hikvision cameras
    August 22, 2024
    Around 170 new road surveillance cameras were purchased by the Danish Roads Directorate – Vejdirektoratet - in late 2022 from Hikvision at a cost of around €670,000.
    Read More
  • Lobby harder and louder if you want better roads says UK transport politician Christopher Chope at PPRS Paris 2015
    February 24, 2015
    A huge leap in highway investment, more privately-run toll motorways and a stronger road industry lobby would all be welcomed by Christopher Chope, chairman of the UK’s highway maintenance all-party parliamentary group. Speaking exclusively to World Highways at the PPRS Paris 2015 pavement preservation and recycling summit, Chope said “yes, I would very much like to have a lot more capital investment in the roads sector. There are still too many pinch points out there … where one motorway meets another for
    Read More

Highlighted Content