Universiti Tun Abdul Razak's (Unitar) officials have decided not to publicly discuss the plight of a former student who was billed RM25,000 for an education loan which she claimed she never took.

The issue was highlighted in two malaysiakini reports this month where both Unitar and the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) claimed no responsibility over the matter.

"Our aim is to resolve the matter and not be on a witch-hunt. We believe it could be best resolved through the proper channels available both at the university and PTPTN," said Unitar corporate affairs department manager Hasnan Hakim in a statement to malaysiakini yesterday.

"Hence, the management has agreed to suspend all comments on such matters through malaysiakini with immediate effect," he added.

Ex-Unitar student Tee Chai Chin, now a company manager, had claimed that her particulars were used without her consent to secure the RM25,000 loan.

She was among 26 ex-Unitar students whose outstanding loan, about RM500,000, was allegedly held by the university. Unitar claimed that it had refunded the money to PTPTN but a check later revealed that the students were still listed as defaulters.

List of questions

Hasnan's statement was in response to a list of questions submitted by malaysiakini via e-mail last Wednesday to Unitar vice-president Dr Sheikh Ghazali Abod in connection with the case.

Among others, he was asked why the students were still listed as defaulters and the status of the amount which was said to have been repaid but PTPTN data showed otherwise.

Malaysiakini also sought information on the outcome of a meeting between PTPTN and Unitar as it is reliably learnt that a meeting took place last Monday.

Unitar has declared that the university's accounts are audited by professional auditors and any possibility of misuse could have been detected during the process.

The university also said it has been a policy that the university "is not privy" to all applications and agreements signed between the students and PTPTN.

In spite of this statement, prior to 2003, PTPTN loans were channeled to applicants through their universities which were responsible for disbursing the money to students after deducting their tuition fees.

The universities are also obliged to verify the status of the students before each disbursement. The signing of agreements between PTPTN and applicants were handled through varsities in almost all cases.

Still in the dark

Contacted later, Tee said she was still in the dark over the status of her 'loan' and the said agreement despite having spoken to Unitar officials for a few times after the issue was brought to the attention of the media.

"I was not given a clear answer on why this could happen. All I was told is to wait for them (Unitar) to obtain more information from PTPTN first," she said.

On Unitar's move to stop releasing media statements, Tee opined this is to "cover-up" the issue which also involved 25 other ex-Unitar students and a huge sum of about half a million.

Unitar is wholly owned by public listed KUB Malaysia Bhd, whose chairperson Hassan Harun is also Unitar chairperson and a former Umno supreme council member. He has been a member of the PTPTN board of directors since 1998.