IPOH, March 13 — The Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF) has clarified that the appointment of its board members and panel lawyers was made based on criteria set by its policy.

In a statement today, HRDF said the selection of the Fund’s board members followed Section 7 of the Pembangunan Sumber Manusia Berhad 2001 Act.

“The appointment of the Fund’s panel lawyers is according to their areas of expertise and vetted by an in-house legal team after registering with the Fund. As of today, the Fund has eighteen lawyers on its panel,” said HRDF’s corporate communications department in a statement.

HRDF said when allegations of corruptions at HRDF surfaced in May 2018, Human Resources Minister M. Kula Segaran set up an independent panel called the HRDF governance oversight committee to investigate.

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“The committee, headed by the former Secretary-General of the International Trade and Industry Ministry Tan Sri Rebecca Sta Maria, looked into the alleged misappropriations as well as on the conflicts of interests at the HRDF,” said HRDF.

“The Ministry of Human Resources and the HRDF was transparent with the disclosure of the GOC findings, made available on the Fund’s website,” added HRDF.

HRDF also said it welcomed Datuk Noor Farida Mohd Ariffin as its new Chairman.

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“As an agency under the purview of the Ministry of Human Resources, the Fund pledges to continue its efforts to train 1.2 million local employees in year 2019 through its six action plans targeting at the pre-employment, employment and post-employment markets while upholding transparency as its virtue,” added HRDF.