Contractors awarded jobs worth RM1.4b

Friday April 10, 2009
Contractors awarded jobs worth RM1.4bil
Government provides details of stimulus packages on Internet

PUTRAJAYA: The Government has todate awarded contractors RM1.39bil worth of projects planned under the second economic stimulus package, according to the its newly launched website www.rangsanganekonomi.treasury.gov.my.

Of the RM60bil package tabled in Parliament on March 10, only RM15bil was actual extra fiscal spending by the Government.
Of this amount, the Education Ministry gets the biggest chunk – RM2.09bil.

Meanwhile, a total of RM5.59bil of the RM7bil allocated under the first stimulus package announced on Nov 4 last year, had been disbursed as at April 2. All 38,000 projects under the first package would be rolled out by the end of this month, the website said.

“The website carries a comprehensive breakdown of allocations, progress reports on spending and current status of all projects under the two economic stimulus packages,’’ said Datuk Mohamad Othman Zainal Azim, chief oper ating officer at the Finance Ministry’s project management unit (PMU).“The English version of the website will be available next week,” he told reporters at a briefing yesterday.The PMU together with the Prime Minister Department’s implementation coordination unit (ICU) and other relevant agencies have been tasked to monitor the progress of the economic stimulus packages.Othman said the website would be regularly updated, at least once a week. Feedback and queries from the public were welcomed, he said.