After audit report, MPs want action on National Professors Council

PARLIAMENT | Government and opposition MPS have called for appropriate action against the National Professors Council (NPC) following a report by the Auditor-General’s Department which found that the council had misused its financial funding.

In a discussion over the Auditor-General’s Report, Abd Ghani Ahmad (PN-Jerlun) questioned the absence of an internal audit committee at NPC.

“The audit review found that NPC did not establish an internal audit committee. I think this is quite a strange thing.

“How can an agency established by the government not have an internal audit committee?” he asked.

He also asked why the Board of Trustees members’ meetings were only held once or twice a year from 2019 to 2023.

“My question is how many times does NPC set the meeting each year?

“If there is no such important meeting, does the chairperson or deputy chairperson make big decisions involving finances or the like based only on the resolutions of NPC members,” he said.

Jerlun MP Abd Ghani Ahmad

The report previously disclosed that NPC, a council of professors of Malaysian universities funded by the government, had misused its financial funding including paying a huge allowance of RM207,000 to the permanent chairperson and deputy chairperson without the minister’s approval.

The auditor also found that RM373,516 of NPC funds were used to pay for the operations of two companies owned by members of the board of trustees.

The members did not declare their interest in the company, said the report.

‘MACC should investigate’

In response, the NPC said the government had moved to dissolve the council and end public patronage in May 2018.

The council said the move indirectly removes the body involved from government patronage.

Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man (PN-Kubang Kerian) asked the government to explain what action has been taken regarding the report while Wong Shu Qi (Harapan-Kluang) suggested that NPC should be brought before the MACC for further investigation.

Kubang Kerian MP Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man

“I ask the government to clarify whether it is more appropriate for the NPC to be placed under the Higher Education Ministry.

“The government needs to explain what the main duties of the NPC are and most importantly - if necessary - the MACC should take action to investigate this issue,” he said.

The report focuses on NPC activities from 2019 to 2023.

NPC is an entity under the Prime Minister’s Department that reports to the higher education minister, with the minister being an adviser to NPC.

According to the NPC website, its chairperson since 2019 is Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia anthropologist Shamsul Amri Baharuddin while Universiti Utara Malaysia political science lecturer Mohamed Mustafa Ishak is its deputy chairperson.

The report also showed NPC received a managing grant from the government amounting to RM35.84 million for the period 2015 to 2018, as well as 2022 and 2023.

The auditor-general recommended that the Prime Minister’s Department review NPC as a company under government supervision. - Mkini