Rural road contracts deferred to limit unpaid bills, says Tengku Zafrul
An extra RM500 million has been approved for 2026 to pay contractors, funded through savings in other ministries’ development budgets.
New contracts for rural roads were put on hold to stop unpaid bills from mounting, not under an instruction to cancel projects, said Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz. The prime minister’s senior political adviser said the Finance Ministry (MOF) had issued no cancellation directive.
Explaining the decision in a social media video, Tengku Zafrul said annual spending on rural roads had surpassed the sums originally approved by Parliament since 2022. He linked this overspending to rising commitments under contracts and amounts still owed to contractors.
To help settle those bills, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, the prime minister and finance minister, approved additional expenditure of RM500 million for 2026, he said. Savings from other ministries’ development budgets would fund the payment.
Tengku Zafrul also disputed allegations that funding had been deliberately cut, especially for Sabah and Sarawak. He put rural road expenditure for 2023-2027 at RM11 billion, including allocations for 2026 and 2027, against RM3.7 billion for 2018-2022.
For Sabah and Sarawak, he reported actual spending of RM1.41 billion on rural roads in 2026, a level not seen in the preceding 10 years. About half of nationwide rural road expenditure goes to the two states annually, he said.
He added that MOF must balance ministries’ funding needs against the government’s ability to honour its obligations. Under Budget 2027, RM2.27 billion is provided for rural roads, while the allocation for Sabah and Sarawak stands at RM34.9 billion, he said.
