Raid at HRDF over Misappropriation of Funds

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HRDF CEO Elanjelian Venugopal said an appointment with the police had been fixed at 11am today.

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A team from Bukit Aman has been at the Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF) headquarters in Damansara Heights, Kuala Lumpur, for more than six hours today.

As of 4.45pm, the Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) team was still in the building to scour for documents and record statements from HRDF employees.

This was confirmed by acting Bukit Aman CCID director Saiful Azly Kamaruddin, who said that the raid was carried out as part of investigations into alleged abuse of power and misappropriation of funds.

“Yes, CCID conducted the raid, and it is still ongoing. We received two police reports regarding alleged abuse of power and misappropriation by the fund’s previous board of directors.

“There are several things that we need to investigate, and this raid was carried out to gather relevant documents,” he told Malaysiakini.

HRDF, an agency under the purview of the Human Resources Ministry, is tasked by the federal government to catalyse the development of a competent workforce.

The agency recently came under the spotlight after media reports surfaced about possible mishandling of a multi-million ringgit property acquisition, which was allegedly done without proper approval by the HRDF board of directors and its investment panel.

Saiful said the raiding party was also tasked to question HRDF staff over the alleged misappropriation. He declined to reveal the number of people being questioned as the operation was still ongoing.

In November, Human Resources Minister M Kulasegaran had alleged the high-ranking staff of HRDF misappropriated around RM100 million of the RM300 million in the fund.

Ahmad Zamzahuri

Kulasegaran also revealed several wrongdoings, such as abuse of duties, acting beyond prescribed procedures without reporting to the board of directors, and criminal breach of trust.

The minister had then also set up a five-member independent GOC to review and probe the allegations.