KUALA LUMPUR: The River of Life (RoL) project is expected to be delayed and will not meet its deadline this year, according to the Auditor-General’s Report 2/2024.
The report said the RoL project has not achieved all its objectives, including the goal of improving river water quality to Class IIB (suitable for recreational use with body contact).
The implementation of the RoL project aims to transform the Klang River and Gombak River Basin areas from a previously uncompetitive and dirty river to a dynamic and habitable waterfront icon with high economic value.
The goal has proven challenging due to weaknesses in planning, implementation, low level of asset operations, and low level of river care awareness.
“Putrajaya’s aspiration to get a return of up to RM4bil to finance the cost of implementing the RoL and avoid using public funds was also not achieved because the proceeds of land sales are subject to their respective owners,” the report read.
The report released on the A-G’s website yesterday also noted that as of December last year, RM3.915bil had been spent on the RM4.363bil project.
Until July this year, 135 out of 159 projects have been completed, with eight still being implemented and 12 at the pre-implementation stage.
“Two projects which had their contracts terminated have yet to appoint a new contractor and another two projects were cancelled,” the report said.
The audit also found that only 79.4% of river beautification projects had been completed and only 50 out of 296 sewage treatment plants had been rationalised or upgraded.
The report highlighted that river relocation works were not done along Sungai Gombak’s 2.2km stretch while construction and repairs of two collapsible weir units costing RM33.37mil did not achieve their objectives because one unit was not operational while another was not completed.
Moreover, the absence of a comprehensive business model caused the operations and maintenance of the RoL projects to be fully reliant on funds from Putrajaya.
“This caused RoL assets to be inadequately maintained, abandoned, neglected, damaged and underutilised. The audit also found weaknesses in the aspects of project governance, including planning, monitoring, design preparation, consultant appointments and project execution,” it said.
