THE Auditor-General’s Department today urged the Human Resources Ministry to refer the management of Human Resources Development Corporation (HRD Corp) to the relevant enforcement agencies after it failed its audit.

Auditor-General Wan Suraya Wan Mohd Radzi said auditors found mismanagement of hundreds of millions of ringgit involving training grants, investments and property purchases, reported Malaysiakini.

In the latest Auditor-General’s Report published today, she pointed out that more than RM50 million in training grants were disbursed to the same person multiple times while auditors deemed more than 200 as ‘suspicious’.

“Overall, the corporate governance of HRD Corp is unsatisfactory.

“Decisions made by HRD Corp management did not follow procedures and did not protect its interests to achieve its objectives,” she said in the report.

The New Straits Times meanwhile said HRD Corp’s investment panel failed to report substantial investment activities to its board of directors (BOD).

This, said Wan Suraya, led to a lack of oversight over its investment activities.

The report also revealed that there was no Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) representative on the panel, which is a violation of the Human Resources Development Fund Act 2001.

“The HRD Corp investment panel did not report investment activities to BOD, in which its management justified that the chairman of the panel is also among the BOD.

“This has resulted in the BOD being unable to monitor HRD Corp’s investment activities as a whole and undermining the BOD’s role as the entity responsible for HRD Corp’s direction

“According to the PSMB Act 2001, a representative from BNM must be appointed as one of the members of the panel, but there has been no BNM representative in the panel since 2017 and this is in violation of the Act,” the report said.

The audit’s scope is from 2019 to 2023.

HRD Corp’s CEO from 2020 is Shahul Hameed Sheikh Dawood. - July 4, 2024