Millions more taken from education funds, says ex-minister

Millions of ringgit, if not billions, have been misappropriated from funds meant for education, former minister Maszlee Malik said today.

(FMT) – He said many reports of misappropriation had been filed while he was education minister. Maszlee served from May 2018 until January 2020 in the former Pakatan Harapan federal government.

“Actually there are many more cases of leakages in the education ministry that involve millions and even billions which caused allocations that should be used on quality education for our children to be misappropriated,” he said in a posting on dilapidated schools and corruption.

However, he did not go into detail.

He said that during his years in the ministry, he would do surprise visits to dilapidated schools, where he would then ask the state education department to take action.

Maszlee added that he would also monitor the progress of construction and rehabilitation of dilapidated schools.

“From my visits to (these) dilapidated schools and witnessing for myself the hardship faced by Sarawakian school pupils, reports have been filed on acts of misappropriation of public monies,” Maszlee said.

His remarks came days after Rosmah Mansor, wife of former prime minister Najib Razak, was found guilty of corruption involving more than RM180 million in funds for a solar energy project for Sarawak schools.

Maszlee did not mention the case directly, but his posting carried the headline Dilapidated Schools and Solar Corruption.

He said he found it unfathomable that some Barisan Nasional people were willing to take funds worth billions for personal luxury when children in Sabah and Sarawak continued to suffer.