Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) has denied receiving any grant from the Open Society Funds (OSF) established by billionaire George Soros, reported Borneo Post.

However, Unimas vice-chancellor Prof Mohamad Kadim Suardi claimed that the university's researchers or lecturers could have received funds through "unofficial channels" without the knowledge of the university management.

"As far as I'm concerned, the university has not received any grant or financial aid from OSF. We have nothing to do with OSF," he was quoted as saying.

Kadim was asked about the content of OSF 2014 reports, which stated that Unimas was one of the fund recipients.

"It could have come as private grants to individual lecturers or researchers, which the university wouldn’t have known about.

"For any fund that we receive, we will determine the source and its purpose. We check everything - we don’t simply accept any offer of funds or grants," he said.

Some lecturers might be engaged in activities outside the university or worked with other non-governmental organisations (NGOs), Kadim added.

“We don’t monitor our lecturers’ activities outside the university. Under normal circumstance, we don’t check on them. They are lecturers - we have to trust them.

"They should know all the rules and regulations, and how to behave," he said, adding that these lecturers are civil servants who are bound by rules and regulations.

A few NGOs have been named as the alleged recipients, including C4 Malaysia, Empowerment Pusat Kesedaran Komuniti, Islamic Renaissance Front, Merdeka Centre for Opinion Research, Penang Institute, Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram), Citizen Journalists Malaysia (Sabah) and Committee For Free Election (Comfrel).

Soros has been said to have a personal interest in Malaysian elections.

Following this, Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said an investigation would be launched if a police report is filed.