Abdul Rahman Dahlan, who is also Tuaran Umno chief, was puzzled why the state had not addressed the poor financial situation faced by University College Sabah Foundation (UCSF), owned by Yayasan Sabah, in its recent two Covid-19 stimulus packages.
“It is a matter of serious concern that UCSF, the only state-owned university in Sabah, and the source of pride of its people, has come to a point where it can no longer afford to pay its staff salaries.
“What happened to the state education and innovation ministry? Is the ministry oblivious to the plight of the university?
“The people of Sabah deserve an explanation from the minister and also Yayasan Sabah,” he said in a Facebook post today.
In a memo sighted by FMT, the UCSF had said it was looking to slash staff salaries by half and possibly lay off hundreds as it was struggling to deal with a sharp drop in student intake due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The memo, by its vice-chancellor, Mohamed Haleem Mohamed Razi, stated all these were part of cost-cutting measures in light of a plunge in intake for the April semester.
“Despite the millions of ringgit in terms of financial aid and scholarship grants obtained by UCSF from various agencies, the reality is that the new student enrolment has failed,” Haleem said in the memo.
“Only 18% of our target for the April semester has been reached, and this has significantly affected UCSF’s financial position.”
To this, Rahman said the problem faced by UCSF was not new, adding that in 2018, the staff of UCSF under the Sabah Animation and Creative Content Centre (SAC3) had revealed to the press that they had not been receiving salaries from the university.
He added the SAC3 was a project fully funded by the federal government under the Sabah Development Corridor (SDC) initiative, launched in 2008.
“Under the Sabah Economic Development and Investment Authority Enactment (Sedia) 2009, all projects under the SDC have been entrusted under the supervision of Sedia, as a one-stop authority.
The Sedia chief executive was appointed by the federal government as the controlling officer under the Federal Financial Procedure Act (1957), he added.
Rahman said, according to reliable sources, following the complaint and concerns raised by the staff of SAC3, Sedia had been instructed by the state government to look into the problems faced by SAC3 and seek a solution to their predicament.
He said among the short-term measures were that Sedia and UCSF had agreed to place SAC3 under direct supervision of Sedia and eventually park it under the newly created state state education and innovation ministry.
“At the moment, Sedia is fully responsible for the operation and funding of SAC3, including the payment of staff salaries.
“What could be worse is that there is even talk that even SAC3 may be facing an uncertain future and eventually may be closed. If the ministry can’t even resolve the financial problems faced by UCSF, there is little comfort to expect that SAC3 would fare better,” he said.
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