The government’s promised one-and-a-half months bonus to all civil servants never reached several temporary teachers, a DAP MP said today.

Kulai MP Teo Nie Ching said that she had received complaints from three teachers in her constituency alone that they had never received the bonus, which was due in January this year.

She said that she was also informed by officials from the Education Department in her area that such cases involving temporary teachers are “widespread”.

“I was also told by these teachers that none of the temporary teachers in Kulai got the bonus,” she said.

All the teachers, she said, have had their claims submitted to the Education Ministry via their schools but said that she was unsure if the money has not been released by the ministry or is stuck with what she called “little Napoleons”.

“Whether the ministry has the money or there is someone in the middle who got the money but is using their own discretion not to release it, we don’t know,” she said.

“We seek for an answer from the Education Ministry,” she said.

In a circular letter issued by the ministry, temporary teachers and contract-based civil employees were also named as being qualified to obtain the bonus.

Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak announced last year that civil servants will get a one-off one-and-a-half months bonus.

The bonus was to be paid out in three stages - for Hari Raya Aidilfitri celebrations last year, in December last year, and a final half-month bonus in January this year.