KOTA KINABALU: The official statistics of Sabah’s hardcore poverty might be inaccurate as the database includes the deceased, says Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun (pic).
The state Finance Minister said the state government needed to review the statistics.
“We realised that there are about 4,000 people who are dead but still part of the statistics,” he said after attending the state-level Kaamatan festival closing ceremony in Penampang near here on Friday (May 31).
The Sabah Maju Jaya secretariat, he said, has been working to locate and identify people under the hardcore poor bracket.
Masidi said the team found many who did not qualify to be on the hardcore poor list.
In his speech at the Kaamatan festival closing ceremony, Anwar said eradicating hardcore poverty was a top priority in Sabah. He set the end of July as the deadline to achieve this.
Masidi said there were programmes ongoing by state agencies to achieve the target.
