R A Thiagaraja, who is also president of the Federation of Malaysian Training Providers & TVET Associations (FMTA), however, did not name the individual in his press statement.
It is believed he was referring to training provider P Ganes.
Yesterday, Thiagaraja had a heated exchange with Ganes outside the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) headquarters when the latter went there to lodge a report alleging abuse of funds and naming Thiagaraja in his report.
Thiagaraja, in a statement today, said allegations were initially made against him during a town hall session organised by the HRDF in the presence of Human Resources Minister M Kulasegaran on June 7.
Allegations of power abuse were also made “by a certain individual” on June 12, he said.
He said FMTA’s task was to provide input to HRDF as a representative of the industry.
“For the record, no funding or allocation from HRDF was received to date by FMTA or channelled to FMTA. For the record, there are other training providers from various associations who are also part of the board,” he said.
Thiagaraja believed this was a personal attack as he was singled out in the allegations.
Thiagaraja said he welcomed any investigation, including by the MACC. “I will fully cooperate with all relevant authorities in their investigations,” he said.
He submitted his resignation as a board member of HRDF on June 8 “so as to ensure that HRDF is not dragged into the controversy and to allow the current minister and the agency to focus on HRDF’s mission”.