Its deputy president, Dr Maximus Ongkili said many farmers at the district level had complained of delayed processing and eventual rejection of their loan applications despite meeting the necessary conditions and security requirement of the loans applied.

He was participating in the debate on the Budget 2000 allocation for the ministry of agriculture which provided, among others, RM18 million as a grant to Bank Pertanian Malaysia.

" From information received, many loan applicants from Kota Marudu, Kota Belud and Keningau have complained that processing of their applications took up to six months or even one year to complete. There are also those who never received a reply from the Bank and after months of waiting asked to resubmit fresh applications," he claimed.

Dr Ongkili said it was a major blow to farmers in disparate need of credit especially at a time when the minister of finance had directed banks to disburse loans for profitable ventures as a means to revitalise the economy.

The Bandau member of parliament also asked the government to disclose the number of loan applications received from Sabah in 1999 by Bank Pertanian, the number of successful applicants, and total amount approved under the Fund For Food (FFF) loan scheme.

Dr Ongkili also called on the government to appoint prominent Sabahans and Sarawakians on the Board of the Bank to ensure that the peculiar economic conditions of both states are taken into account in the formulation of lending policies and investment priorities.