Teo says MCA must get higher allocation for TAR UC

PETALING JAYA: Rasah MP Teo Kok Seong has retorted that he does not expect MCA to thank him for “exposing” a lack of any financial provisions for Tunku Abdul Rahman University College (TAR UC) in Budget 2018.

The DAP lawmaker claimed that his action had prompted the higher education ministry to announce a RM30 million allocation had been arranged to the MCA-owned institution.

“MCA should strive hard to demand a higher allocation for TAR UC as its funding from the federal government is decreasing,” Teo said.

“Compared to the RM60 million given in 2015, the allocation for 2018 has declined by RM30 million,” he added in a statement today.

The MCA headquarters had yesterday demanded an apology from Teo for alleging that TAR UC had been excluded from federal funding for 2018.

It said the issue of education should never be politicised, and DAP should stop making “groundless” allegations against the government and MCA.

It said this following a statement by the higher education ministry on Thursday that a RM30 million grant had been prepared and would be channelled to TAR UC to cover the cost of its management operations for next year.

The ministry had said it was giving the clarification in response to queries raised by Teo and Tanjung Piai MCA MP Wee Jeck Seng during the debate on the Supplies Bill 2018 in the Dewan Rakyat.

Both MPs had asked Higher Education Minister Idris Jusoh why there was no financial allocation for TAR UC next year.

Teo said he would not apologise and questioned why Idris was not able to answer his query in the Dewan Rakyat on Nov 28 if the RM30 million had indeed been set aside.

He claimed that Idris was also unable to answer journalists when asked about it in Parliament’s media room on Nov 29.

He said the allocations for TAR UC in previous years were recorded in the ministry’s estimated expenditure in the annual budgets, but this was not the case in Budget 2018.

He said the institution was also previously categorised under the ministry’s “Programme 8”, and its objectives and a brief introduction on it were provided in the estimated expenditures for the budgets of 2016 and 2017.

He said the practice should be continued for the sake of transparency and to allow the public to monitor the funding. -FMT