PUTRAJAYA, April 17 — Human Resources Minister V. Sivakumar today said he is not a suspect in an ongoing investigation by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) into corruption allegations about foreign worker recruitment deals.

The Batu Gajah MP said he had gone to the national MACC headquarters here yesterday to have his statement recorded, and added that he had not been arrested.

"I wasn’t held there as a suspect. I was there only to give statements and I will follow all procedures,” he told reporters briefly after attending a soft launch of the National Training Week at the Le Meridien Hotel here this morning.

Citing an unnamed source, Utusan Malaysia had earlier reported that Sivakumar was called by the MACC to answer questions about alleged cash kickbacks from an unnamed businessman who had been detained alongside the two ministerial aides.

The Malay daily also reported that the minister was still with the MACC as of 6pm yesterday, nine hours after he went to Putrajaya, but was not under arrest and may have been released later.

On April 13, an aide to Sivakumar was arrested together with a recruitment agent by MACC allegedly over quota for recruiting foreign workers, which was the purview of the Human Resources Ministry.

A day later another suspect identified as Sivakumar’s female private secretary became the latest person to be arrested by the anti-graft agency since investigations began.

Sivakumar arrived here at the hall together with Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin to give a speech at the event.

He officially introduced National Training Week which will be held nationwide from May 22 to May 28 this year.

NTW 2023 will be operated by Human Resource Development Corporation (HRD Corp) which provides training events and activities for free for Malaysian individuals or groups, covering a wide range of topics and skills areas.

It aims to raise awareness of the importance of training and inculcating a culture of lifelong learning among all Malaysians.

The ministry expects NTW 2023 to attract over 5,000 trainers and collaborators who will deliver over 5,000 training courses, train up to 125,000 participants, record over 500,000 training hours, and create over RM250 million in training value.

Sivakumar said human capital is a crucial resource for enabling consistent and continuous economic growth for the nation.

"A skills mismatch will hinder this growth. Therefore, we must address this gap in a meaningful, tangible and impactful manner. NTW 2023 is an excellent initiative that will enable us to do this.

"To that end, I urge all parties, from large multinational organisations to SMEs, established Training Providers to individual trainers, and universities to TVET centres, to support NTW 2023,” he said.