KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 3 — The Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) today assured all government-sponsored scholarship students overseas that they will receive their monthly stipends by October 7 this week, after claims that their allowances would be delayed.

A letter purportedly informing students about the payment delay went viral on Facebook recently.

"Kementerian Pendidikan Tinggi (KPT) memberi jaminan bahawa semua pelajar tajaan KPT di luar negara akan menerima elaun sara hidup masing-masing pada minggu ini iaitu selewat-lewatnya pada Jumaat 7 Oktober 2016. Sekian terima kasih.”

Translation: "Higher Education Ministry (MoHE) would like to assure that all MoHe sponsored students overseas will receive their respective allowance this week latest, Friday October 7 2016. Thank you,” the ministry said in a statement today.

The ministry however did not state if the initial letter made viral online was authentic.

The original letter dated September 30 purportedly said that the allowances had to be deferred owing to "technical issues”, and that all accommodation payments must be paid by the students themselves first.

The letter was addressed to "Education Malaysia.”

Malay Mail Online’s checks however revealed Education Malaysia Global Services (EGMS), a government agency which prides itself in "assisting the Ministry of Education in the implementation of policies relating to students” as well as "collecting, publishing and disseminating student information” among few others.

Ministry officials have yet to respond to the Malay Mail Online’s queries over the purported delay till October 14 and the authenticity of the initial letter, as well as an explanation over the "technical issues” as stated in the viral letter.