MACC should open Mitra's can of worms

PSM central committee member Sharan Raj’s description may not have hit the bull’s eye but the arrow landed in one of the inner circles.

A month ago, he described the Malaysian Indian Transformation Unit (Mitra), a government entity dedicated to helping the Indian community as “an event funding organisation for politically-linked people.”

Tuesday’s arrest of 16 directors of companies that had received grants from Mitra by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) should not have come as a surprise. More arrests are expected to follow.

For long, there had been complaints from genuine training companies that “grants” were given to those who had neither the knowledge nor the expertise. On the contrary, they were given to cronies of politicians who set up “instant monies” to receive funds. The training was then leased to trainers.

Claims of misuse of funds by those connected with the hierarchy of a political party have surfaced regularly over the years. Despite repeated calls for an investigation, nothing moved because of what was rumoured to be the hot seat in Putrajaya.

But all that changed on Oct 5. National Unity Minister Halimah Sadique dropped a bombshell in Parliament - Mitra has not been receiving its full RM100 million annual allocation for the past two years as it has “debts” to pay.

Mitra only had RM65 million for 2020, with RM35 million used to pay off debts from programmes implemented previously. This led former minister P Wathyamoorthy to call for an MACC investigation.

Alleged widespread fraud

Allegations of wrongdoing by officials of Mitra’s predecessor, the Socio-Economic Development of the Indian Community Unit (Sedic), have been rife, including the siphoning of large sums allocated for chilli farming and flower cultivation.

In 2018, under Wathyamoorthy who was then a minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Mitra was rebranded through several new enhancements that uplifted the community’s socioeconomic status.

Mitra said it has moved away from stereotypical courses on making “muruku”, and instead embarked on resolving economic issues in the community including job placements for graduates and expansive use of e-applications.

However, Mitra is not the only agency where such grants have been misused. Two years ago, internal investigations in the Human Resource Development Fund (HRDF) discovered wide-scale fraud including training programmes, some of which were non-existent. Many of these were carried out with the connivance of senior management staff.

In one instance, HRDF dished out more than RM19 million to one company for a course in “training for scaffolding for the oil and gas industry”. Participants were supposed to be able to find jobs after their training, but false documents were submitted to make claims.

In the case of Mitra, documents sighted by Malaysiakini show that among the recipients of grants running from tens of thousands to RM3 million were a former prime minister’s aide, a minister’s aide, party leaders and well-connected businesspersons.

Dummy programmes

Many of these courses could be described as having little or had nothing to do with the upliftment of the Indian community. In one case, an organisation received RM852,000 on the request by the party treasurer for a programme called “Sehaj - Ke arah Komunti Maju dan Sihat”, whatever that means. No other details were available.

In another case, RM840,000 was requested by the party president to train candidates for a certificate in “executive healthcare assistant”. Notations to the grants said “Program tidak selesai. Hanya 45 orang tamat pengajian. Bagi 55 belum selesai. (Programme not completed. 45 have finished the course. 55 have not).

The women’s wing of a political party was also given RM1.13 million to run a “women’s empowerment programme” but no details were available. A vice-president sought and received RM500,000 for a stroke treatment programme while RM470,400 was allocated for bridal and wedding decoration courses.

The secretary of the party requested RM3 million, which was paid to an “enterprise” to supply hampers. Another party stalwart requested RM500,000 to be paid to a logistics company.

The documents also revealed that under Halimah’s watch, RM900,000 was approved for “Robostem” training and the notations said “kos tiga kali ganda” (amount is three times the cost).

The Treasury, which makes financial allocation for various development programmes, must exercise more control over the monies, and if necessary, have a representative in the committee which approves the projects.

Then proper monitoring should be followed up and not washing hands after the money has been dispensed. Otherwise, the misuses and abuse are likely to continue, with some politicians thumping their chests and claiming they cannot be touched. - Mkini

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R NADESWARAN is a veteran journalist who has written on government funds and being accountable for them. Comments: citizen.nades22@gmail.com

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.