Press statement by MP for Ipoh Barat and DAP National Vice-Chairman, M. Kula Segaran on 18 May 2021:

Government must address alleged abuse of Penjana hiring incentive programme funds

The Penjana hiring incentive programme, is an economic recovery incentive under the Ministry of Human Resource, administered by SOCSO’s National Employment Services to promote job creation among employers while increasing employment prospects.

This is done by providing incentives to employers to hire the jobless of various age groups.

Unfortunately, there have been many dubious employers who have allegedly abused such an arrangement by obtaining or applying for the Penjana incentive without actually hiring the individuals concerned.

This is done by maintaining a list of names of individuals without employing them.

How such names are obtained is the big question that remains unanswered. If this is true, it is a violation of the Personal Data Protection Act 2010 (PDPA) and must be addressed by the Perikatan Nasional government at once.

The people also ought to know how this information is used.

Recently, there were police reports lodged at the Karak police station by ADUN for Sabai, YB Kamache Doray Rajoo.

These reports were on young people whose names were registered at Sosco as contributors but have not worked before. These young people have been presumed to be already working for a named company; Synergy Communication on Technology Sdn Bhd.

Synergy Communication is understood to have applied for Penjana hiring incentives.

If these allegations are true, there is obviously a lack of accountability and supervision of this taxpayer’s money and the government has a duty to be transparent about this to the people.

These malpractices have deprived the youth who have not been employed for months now, from training programs that require no deduction from Socso and Employment insurance schemes.

In other words, fresh graduates and the young who have not worked before are the one that lose out the most from these alleged malpractices.

Therefore it is only fair to pose the question to the government and the Human Resources Minister, if they are aware of these alleged malpractices and what they intend to do about it.

The Minister must intervene against such abuses of funds which are meant for the unemployed.

This also goes to show that Parliament must be reconvened at the soonest possible date for proper check and balances to exist once again.

M. Kula Segaran
MP for Ipoh Barat
DAP National Vice-Chairman
Former Human Resources Minister