KUALA LUMPUR: A government backbencher today called on the government to dissolve the National Professors' Council (MPN) following the issues highlighted in the Auditor General's (AG) report.
Jimmy Puah Wee Tse (PH-Tebrau) proposed that by dissolving the MPN, the funds allocated for the council could be redirected and used for programmes that benefit the people.
"On MPN, there have been numerous reports of fund misuse and conflicts of interest.
"To me, this clearly indicates that there are issues within its management.. but when things like this happen, we feel disappointed and saddened.
"I saw a suggestion from the audit that asked the Prime Minister Department to review the status. In my opinion, let's say goodbye and dissolve MPN. Let's save that money for the people.
"We've increased Sales and Service Tax (SST), and streamlined subsidies, but leakages (funds) are not handled well," he said during the debate session of the latest AG's report in Dewan Rakyat today.
The AG report released on July 4 revealed that nearly RM374,000 in MPN funds were misused to benefit two companies in which two trustees have a stake.
According to the report from 2019 to 2023, the AG found that two board of trustees members failed to declare share ownership in two companies in line with the Companies Act.
On other issues, it was also found that the payment of fixed allowances for the MPN chairman and deputy chairman totaling RM207,000 was not approved by the relevant minister.