KUCHING: The overall implementation of Replanting and New Planting of Rubber Programmes under the National Key Economic Areas (NKEA): Entry Point Projects (EPPs) 2 – Ensuring Sustainability of the upstream rubber industry for the years 2012 to 2014, managed to increase the area of rubber plantations to 30.86 thousand hectares.
It involved the participation of 14,883 people across the state.
This was revealed in the Third Series of the 2014 Auditor-General’s Report released yesterday, where a total of 268 recommendations were submitted to the report to help the federal government, its statutory bodies, and state governments improve and rectify their weaknesses.
Nevertheless, the report also found some weaknesses in the implementation, such as late payment in the procurement of Budded Rubber Stump and the procurement of fertiliser, which was not in accordance to the terms of the contract.
“Preliminary studies of the project were also unsatisfactory, which caused the discontinuation of the Rubber Block Planting, while the performance of the Replanting Cluster Management Committee was unsatisfactory, where the financial management was poorly managed,” said Auditor-General Tan Sri Ambrin Buang in the report.
Though the Rubber Replanting Programme was satisfactorily implemented, achieving 100.2 per cent, the New Planting Programme physical achievement was 58.8 per cent whereas the overall financial performance of the same programme was satisfactory at 75.4 per cent.
In order to improve the performance of the Replanting and New Planting of Rubber Programmes in the state, the
report recommended that the Department of Agriculture plan in detail the procurement in order to achieve the
programme’s target and collaborate with Rubber Industry Smallholders Development Authority (Risda) to monitor
the performance of the contractors while appropriate actions in accordance with the terms of the contract for non-compliance to the contract should be taken.
“The Department of Agriculture should also ensure preliminary studies are conducted on the suitability of the soil to avoid the cancellation of the project,” Ambrin added.
It is also recommended that Risda should ensure that the Replanting Cluster Management Committee perform the
duties and responsibilities entrusted to ensure that allocation channelled to the account is used for the intended purposes.
“The supervisor shall ensure that the Replanting Cluster Management Committee receive training and guidance from time to time,” he said.
Under the Tenth Malaysia Plan, the NKEA: EPPs 2 — Ensuring Sustainability of the upstream rubber industry is to address the decline in rubber plantations in Malaysia and maintain the rubber areas of 1.2 million hectares.
To promote replanting and new rubber planting activities amongst the smallholders, the government has increased the replanting grant from RM7,000 to RM9,230 per hectare in Peninsular Malaysia, RM13,500 per hectare in Sarawak and RM14,000 per hectare in Sabah.
The objective of the programme is to increase the income of smallholders to be above the poverty line, developing rubber as a major crop to ensure a sustainable and sufficient supply of rubber wood for the rubber wood industries, and to ensure the sustainability of rubber wood-based of rubber income.
For 2012 to 2014, 7,486 farmers participated in the New Planting Programme, which involved 17,629.8 hectares while 7,397 smallholders, with a total area of 13,226.2 hectares, participated in the Rubber Replanting Programme.
