If you live, trade or move goods along Sabah's west-east road spine, the Auditor-General's latest finding is blunt: Phase 1 of the Sabah Pan Borneo Highway is still unfinished after 10 years of planning and work.
The headline number is four. Only four of the 35 work packages, costing RM567 million, had been completed as at 31 March 2026, while 31 packages worth RM16.319 billion were still under implementation, according to reporting on the Auditor-General's Report Series 2/2026 by The Star. Nine packages were classified as sick projects, 13 were behind schedule and nine were ahead of schedule.
That matters for property because highways do not just shorten journeys after they open. During delay years, towns along the alignment live with construction risk, slower logistics and uncertainty over when land around planned interchanges will actually get the access promised on paper.
The audit said Phase 1 covers 706 km and was originally scheduled from 11 April 2016 to 31 December 2021. Its overall contract cost rose from RM17.91 billion to RM18.96 billion. Phase 1A alone is now estimated at RM11.323 billion, RM987 million or 9.5% above its original ceiling of RM10.336 billion, and the report said the overall project cannot be completed unless the government approves additional funding.
FMT and Sinar Harian also reported that RM513.99 million in variation orders were approved beyond authorised limits, while 19 packages started work before environmental impact assessment approvals. FMT said RM144 million in compensation was still unpaid and 99 structures had yet to be demolished under Phase 1A.
For Sabah buyers and landowners, the practical question is timing. A road project this large can change the value of locations along it, but the audit is a reminder that the benefit depends on delivery, not the line drawn on a map.
Sources: The Star, FMT, Sinar Harian.
