Employers unsure if 1MalaysiaGRIP contributions will be recredited

PETALING JAYA: With the 1Malaysia Globally Recognised Industry and Professional Certification (1MalaysiaGRIP) no longer being offered, it is still unknown if employers' contribution will be re-credited into their individual accounts.
"Thus far there is no information on whether the unutilised funds will be re-credited to the individual employers' accounts," said Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) executive director Datuk Shamsuddin Bardan on the training and upskilling programme offered by the Human Resource Development Fund (HRDF).
"When 1MalaysiaGRIP was first launched, MEF was informed by HRDF that the unutilised funds will be re-credited to employers' accounts," he added.
However, he said employers are yet to hear from HRDF on whether the unutilised money will be reimbursed into their individual accounts as previously discussed.
According to theSun's report on Oct 24, HRDF had received a directive from the government to phase out the programme by Oct 1.
It was also reported that employers saw red over the programme as they were not getting value for their money, as 30% of their contributions, collected through levy payment, was used to cover the training cost of employees of HRDF registered companies.
As of December 2015, HRDF announced through a circular that it had collected a total of RM86.3 million through levy collections, of which only RM15.2 million was used for 1MalaysiaGRIP.
The circular dated Dec 22 also stated that the remaining RM 71.1million would be pooled into a consolidated fund.
Shamsuddin urged HRDF to open its books and be more transparent by detailing what the remnants of the fund and the matching government grant will be utilised for.
He also stated that the report should be audited and made public.