HRD Corp probe: Sivakumar to appear before PAC

HR minister, MoF official who queried corporation’s decisions to testify before Public Accounts Committee

8:00 AM MYT

 

KUALA LUMPUR – Human Resources Minister V. Sivakumar will be appearing before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in the latter’s inquiry into the management and finances of the Human Resources Development Corporation (HRD Corp).

It is understood that Sivakumar will appear before the PAC in Parliament on November 2. 

Also being summoned is Datuk Rosli Yaakub, the Finance Ministry’s (MoF) representative on the HRD Corp board.

Rosli, the deputy secretary for governance and monitoring under MoF’s government investment companies division, had raised the alarm over the introduction of a skills passport programme, which he said did not get board approval.

On April 10, Rosli wrote a six-page letter addressed to HRD Corp chairman Datuk R. Rajasekharan and chief executive Datuk Shahul Hameed Dawood, raising concerns that included the lack of transparency in the approval, the absence of board approval, and the weak finances of Neomindz Sdn Bhd, the company that was going to partner with HRD Corp in rolling out the project. 

He also feared that the company was 50% owned by an Indian national and wondered if it was prudent to put sensitive local data in the hands of a foreign entity.

Neomidz would have been paid RM12 for every use of the skills passport – a skills database search engine.

In the letter titled Non-compliance with Procurement Procedures in the Skills Passport Project, Rosli said HRD Corp would be committed to financial obligations of up to RM159.47 million annually based on the database of 4.4 million workers.

On October 23, Shahul Dawood and Human Resources Ministry deputy secretary-general (Policy and International) Datuk Amran Ahmad appeared before the PAC, headed by chairman Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin.

What was initially believed to be an inquiry into the skills passport issue has evolved into an investigation into the entire operations of the upskilling institution that controls an estimated RM2 billion, comprising employers’ contributions.

The probe also spread into the decision making process of HRD Corp, seeing that the corporation has been running without a chairman or full board since April. 

Also present at the October 23 hearing were senior HRD Corp officials and representatives of the Finance Ministry.

It is learnt that the PAC will be extending its sitting for at least five sessions. 

On October 21, Scoop reported that a governance framework report that is meant to prevent future mismanagement and misappropriation had been removed from the corporation’s system and kept from the current board.

An audit of the then Human Resources Development Fund – before it was renamed HRD Corp – was ordered by then human resources minister M. Kulasegaran in 2018, but the report said Kulasegaran is no longer accessible since his departure from the ministry in 2020.

In April, Sivakumar was quizzed by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission over the arrest of two of his senior aides with regard to allegations of corruption concerning the recruitment of foreign workers.

Sivakumar later disclosed to the media that five of his officers were sacked following the scandal. – October 26, 2023

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