KUALA LUMPUR, June 7 —The Human Resources Ministry will set up an independent board soon to investigate and address complaints against the Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF), said its minister M. Kulasegaran today.

“We need an effective mechanism to deal with the problems and issues raised as this is an essential aspect of the fund,” he said during the townhall session on the new direction of HRDF’s Registered Training Provider here today.

He said the current standard practice is for all complaints be channelled to HRDF’s CEO Datuk CM Vignaesvaran Jeyandran or the organisation itself.

“I suggest the establishment of a body to address all complaints on HRDF’s website,” he said, adding that this option is most accessible to the public.

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The Ipoh Barat MP added queries from the public and the answers provided by HRDF must be transparent and accessible to all on the website.

At the session, the training providers voiced the problems encountered when dealing with HRDF management, especially when it came to getting in touch with them, to register as training providers and bid for tenders.

“From the little things, there are many issues that need to be resolved,” he said, adding that an immediate remedy is needed to make HRDF more responsive and transparent with its funds.

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“This is the public’s money and everyone should know what is happening,” he added.

HRDF collects 1 per cent levy from employees’ salaries.

The funds are used to help the up-skilling, re-skilling and multi-skilling of the workforce, to minimise the impact of retrenchment and possibly reduce the rate of unemployment.

On Tuesday, Kulasegaran said that errant employers have until June 30 to register themselves with HRDF, stating that there are 22,678 registered employers under fund, while there are 44,750 employers who are liable to be registered.

He also warned employers, who have defaulted on their monthly levy payments, to pay up, or risk being hauled to court.

Any employer, who contravenes the registration requirement under Section 13(1) of the PSMB Act 2001, commits an offence and shall on conviction, is liable to a fine not exceeding RM10,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year, or to both.

The PSMB Act refers to the Pembangunan Sumber Manusia Berhad Act 2001, which established the HRDF.

The mandatory registration criteria require employers to have a minimum of 10 Malaysian employees in the manufacturing, mining and quarrying and 38 other service sub-sectors.

It was recently reported, to date, there are a total of 3,650 registered Training Providers with HRDF.

Last year, a total of 2,452 (67.1 per cent) of TPs benefitted from the RM684 million financial assistance, disbursed to employers.