How long does it take to rebuild a school dorm that collapsed?

A school dorm collapsed in Belaga, Sarawak in January 2012, injuring 18 pupils, with five seriously hurt. Work was supposed to have been completed in March 2013 but…

… their desire to speed up the project through the use of pre-fab material has only ended up delaying the project, as they apparently are unable to secure enough material.

This is a state that aims to build a string of mega dams but it can’t complete the construction of a simple school dorm after so long? What kind of priority is this?

And if a school dorm can collapse and injure pupils, should we have confidence in these dams?

See this Borneo Post report.

Blog reader Anak Kuching sends us this link to another Borneo Post report involving another school:

According to Dawos, the construction of the two new blocks of SK Bengoh was a classic example of incompetence on the part of the contractor handling the project.

He said the work quality was ‘irritatingly bad’ compared with the tender price of more than RM900,000.

“To do only two blocks, including a dormitory, bathroom and toilet, to me this is too expensive. Moreover the work quality is not there.

“Apart from only doing two small buildings the contractor also caused much degradation to the environment,” he said.

He was referring to the many mosquito breeding grounds at the school compound, where aedes mosquitoes could breed, left behind by the contractor.

He thus called on the relevant authorities to audit the project to check whether the funds were justifiably spent.

“In fact before the handing over of the project (expected next week) the Public Works Department as the developer of the project needs to audit the work of the contractor to check whether the funds spent is justifiable or not,” he said.