KUALA LUMPUR, July 4 — The Auditor-General’s Report 2024 released today revealed that the National Council of Professors (MPN) had misused RM373,516 to finance the operations of two companies and channelled a total of RM207,000 of fixed allowances to its chairman and deputy chairman.

There were four payments done without the approval of the board of trustees amounting to RM610,000 and three instances where grants — totalling over RM2.44 million — were inefficiently used.

"JPM (Prime Minister’s Department) needs to take appropriate action against MPN’s management to identify the irregularities by checking with the relevant enforcement agencies and MPN’s management needs to be thoroughly overhauled,” the report suggested.

From March 2022 to January 2024, the chairman and his deputy were paid a fixed monthly allowance amounting to RM5,000 and RM4,000 respectively without obtaining approval from the minister in charge, it reported.

Further, two privately owned companies that were not MPN subsidiaries had also been operating in MPN’s headquarters since 2019 without rent, though one company became inactive in 2022.

The operations of the other company were borne by MPN’s funds amounting to RM166,975 and an advancement of RM71,000 was also channelled into the company — none of which was repaid to MPN.

The report also said that two members of the board of trustees did not declare their interest as shareholders of the two companies in accordance with the Companies Act 2016.

The Auditor-General’s Report cited MPN’s reception of a large grant of RM35.84 million by the government as the reason for its audit. The grant spanned from 2015 to 2018 as well as 2022 and 2023.