The Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (Mosti) has admitted giving out RM15 million in grants to subsidiaries of NSE Resources Sdn Bhd, a company said to have received an RM100 million grant from the ministry, based on a letter from the prime minister.

In a written answer to Rafizi Ramli (PKR-Pandan, left ) earlier this week, the ministry admitted giving three separate grants to two subsidiary companies of NSE Resources, even though two out of the three projects were not fulfilled by the companies, Global Network Technology Sdn Bhd and NSE Pomar Sdn Bhd.

However, the ministry said, it never gave out a grant to NSE Resources Sdn Bhd, the parent company that Rafizi had alleged received a massive RM 100 million grant.

At a press conference today, Rafizi maintained that the awarding of the RM100 million grant did take place and defied Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and the minister in the charge, Ewon Ebin, to sign a statutory declaration that they did not approve this grant for NSE Resources.

Rafizi also described the ministry’s denial that it did not issue a grant as an “empty denial” and questioned the knowledge of Deputy Minister Abu Bakar Diah, who had also issued a denial on the matter before.

Abu Bakar was previously reported as saying that there is a cap of RM3 million for every grant issued by the ministry, but the written answer clearly disproves this, Rafizi said.

“By the ministry’s own admission, it had handed grants for an RM5.995 million project, an RM3.733 million project, and an RM4.463 million project to these companies,” he added.