TWO police reports have been lodged on the financial abuses at the Human Resources Consolidated Fund (HRDF), which allegedly ran into millions of ringgit, said Human Resources Minister M. Kulasegaran.

“These reports were made last week,” Kulasegaran told reporters after the HRDF town hall meeting with employer associations and registered employers in Kuala Lumpur today.

The town hall was held in conjunction with the release of the Governance Oversight Committee (GOC) report today. The committee, headed by former Ministry of International Trade and Industry director-general Rebecca Fatima Sta Maria, has been tasked with looking into the practices of HRDF.

The minister, however, did not want to give details about what the reports involved or the alleged amount of abuses other than to say “it was millions”.

“We want to let the police do their work and investigate these claims,” said Kulasegaran, who said the government will institute civil and criminal proceedings against the perpetrators.

Newly appointed HRDF chief executive V.E. Elanjelian said the abuses came from the consolidated fund.

“Prior to 2016, the training levies collected from employers went into the main fund where they could use it directly. But after the creation of the consolidated fund (announced during the 2016 national budget), 30% of the levies collected went into this fund.

“Subsequently, the money was used by the management for training or other programmes, decided solely by them. Some of these transactions did not go through the board,” said Elanjelian.

The GOC report had also highlighted that there were irregular expenditures from the consolidated fund that were not approved by the board of directors.

In June, former HRDF CEO C.M. Vigneswaran Jeyandran resigned amid allegations that RM300 million was alleged to have been misappropriated.

Vigneswaran’s resignation was followed by seven other resignations from the HRDF board of directors.

Complaints about the misappropriation of RM300 million were first highlighted by Bagan assemblyman M. Satees and Seberang Prai municipal council member David Marshal who had lodged a police report on the matter. – November 10, 2018.