DAP’s M Kula Segaran said the Human Resources Development Corporation’s financial report showed that the agency spent RM540.4 million to train 434,912 people last year, a sum he wants itemised so people will know where the funds actually ended up.

“The reality is that the total number of those being trained dropped due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, it is surprising that the cost per trainee has increased 87% in one year from RM665 per trainee to RM1,241 per trainee,” he told FMT.

Providing the breakdown of the funds from the report, the Ipoh Barat MP said that last year, the training grant from levies was RM 298.8 million, strategic fund RM120 million and government grants RM 121.6 million, which totalled RM540.4 million.

The total number trained from these funds was 434,912.

“In 2019, the training grant from levies was RM 579.1 million, strategic fund RM4.4 million and government grants RM7.7 million. This amounts to RM591.2 million but the number of trainees who benefitted was 889, 305,” he said.

This was more than twice the number of people retrained or reskilled.

Kula said he was not implying any corrupt practice in the agency, but the authorities should also not rule out such a possibility as the disparity between the numbers trained for the two years for nearly the same amount spent was “too great to ignore”.

“I call upon the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission to institute a probe into this specific expenditure which does not appear to be justified based on the number of workers trained over the two years,” he said.