Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) has denied allegations that its vice-chancellor Sahol Hamid Abu Bakar was involved in corrupt practice in the selection of candidates for its Young Lecturers Scholarship Scheme (TPM) five years ago.

NONE The university's legal adviser, Shad Saleem Faruqi ( right ), said Sahol was cleared by an internal investigation and the then Anti-Corruption Agency (now, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission or MACC) also found no evidence of corruption in the matter.

"ACA interviewed several UiTM officers and examined the UiTM system of selection for scholarships. It found no evidence of corruption, but made several recommendations to improve the system to make it more transparent," Shad told Malaysiakini .

Allegations of this matter, which took place in 2007, were recently leaked to Malaysiakini .

Shad, who is a constitutional law expert, said the Ministry of Higher Education had also conducted its own investigation into the matter, but the outcome was not disclosed.

Malaysiakini

had been informed that in 2008, the ACA investigated allegations that Sahol had abused his power and his official position to obtain scholarships under TPM for his two daughters.

According to a source, the ACA called on the UiTM vice-chancellor at the time, Ibrahim Abu Shah, to take necessary measures on the allegations against Sahol - who is then deputy vice-chancellor in charge of academic affairs.

Sahol approved interview board report

The source said the ACA had, among other matters, concluded that:

1. Sahol, as a member of the staff training and development committee, approved an interview board report that nominated 411 candidates after interviews and mock teaching sessions.

2. Sahol, as the chairperson of the staff affairs committee, acknowledged the TPM offer results, but failed to declare his interests, in that two of his children, from the Faculty of Communications and Media Studies and the Faculty of Civil Engineering, were among the candidates.

3. Sahol, at a staff affairs committee meeting in February 2007, said he was not involved in the selection process and did not declare that his two daughters were among the candidates.

The source also said Ibrahim then referred the matter to the Ministry of Higher Education.

In a recent statement to Malaysiakini , Shad said UiTM's investigations, which began on March 19, 2007, found that Sahol did not exert any undue influence upon the faculties that handled the applications.

"However, the committee found that there were undesirable differences from faculty to faculty in several aspects of the selection process, such as the composition of the faculty selection committees.

Sahol also send SMS, denying the allegation

"Some criteria like ‘critical fields' were too subjective and may lead to unequal justice," Shad said.

NONE As for qualifications, he said, one of Sahol's daughters who was chosen had the third highest cumulative grade point average (CGPA) in her faculty, which was 3.62.

The other daughter was said to have a CGPA of 3.20, but was still ahead of other candidates in other criteria, such as social skills and command of the English language. In addition, her field of study - bridge engineering - was regarded as a critical field.

Sahol (left) also denied the corruption allegations in an SMS to Malaysiakini , saying that the charges against him were "false and defamatory".

In that year, 2007, a total of 700 candidates from UiTM were recommended for the scholarships, of whom 250 were full-time staff and another 450 came under the TPM.