KUALA LUMPUR,, Jan 11 — Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF) chief executive officer Elanjelian Venugopal today said he will fully cooperate with authorities who are conducting an investigations over allegation of misappropriation of funds.
Earlier today police raided the HRDF main office in Damansara Heights to conduct investigations related to an ongoing probe on misappropriation of funds, fraud and other malpractices.
Elanjelian said investigators had went to the main office to record statement from him as a follow up to the report he filed against the previous administration last year.
“We are giving our full cooperation, and hope that the on-going probe will conclude successfully with the wrongdoers taken to task,” he said in a statement today.
Bukit Aman Commercial Crimes Investigation Department (CCID) acting director Datuk Saiful Azly Kamaruddin earlier confirmed to the Malay Mail that investigators from Brickfields CCID had been sent to HRDF following instructions from Bukit Aman.
Investigators had also prior to today's raid interviewed several HRDF staff members in relation to the investigations.
On Wednesday, The Star reported that HRDF allegedly bought property in Bangsar South here without its board or investment panel's knowledge in a 2015 purchase involving hundreds of millions of ringgit.
The HRDF apparently purchased the six floor property at a price of RM154 million including Goods and Services Tax (GST) although the board's approval was for the government agency to buy another building in the same location a pre-GST price of RM141 million.
A source told the local daily that the board was also informed that the minister (at that time) approved the change of the property to be acquired.
In November, Human Resources Minister M. Kulasegaran said high-ranking staff of HRDF misappropriated around RM100 million of the RM300 million in the fund.
He also highlighted several wrongdoings, such as abuse of duties, criminal breach of trust and the acting beyond prescribed procedure without reporting to the board of directors.
Kulasegaran also set up a five-member independent governance oversight committee (GOC) to review and probe the allegations.
