The National Higher Education Fund's (PTPTN) donations in recent months have raised eyebrows on social media.

This is primarily because PTPTN has been struggling to collect student loan repayments and recently caused a public outcry over its stillborn automatic pay deduction scheme.

However, in September, PTPTN chairperson Wan Saiful Wan Jan wrote on his Facebook that the agency would donate RM100,000 to storm victims in Perlis.

Yesterday, PTPTN announced that RM1 million would be given to the Kedah zakat board to help the poor.

Then today, PTPTN said it would set aside RM50,000 for the family of Kedah-born firefighter Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim who died due to injuries sustained in the Nov 27 Seafield temple riots.

In a tweet this morning, anti-corruption pressure group C4 demanded an explanation from PTPTN over the funds.

"We thought PTPTN is short of funds, like RM39 billion short. This (the donations) is clearly not in the interest of the public. Care to explain?" wrote C4 in a tweet to Wan Saiful.

 Rescue of the grants

Another Twitter user identified as Ooi Kok Hin speculated that PTPTN's donations may have to do with politics.

He pointed out that Wan Saiful was a candidate for the May 9 elections in Kedah and that he was from the same party as menteri besar Mukhriz Mahathir.

Wan Saiful is also the Perlis Bersatu secretary.

 According to PTPTN's annual reports, the agency has been posting a profit since 2011.

Upon closer inspection, however, this was only possible because of grants by the federal government which amounted to RM1,881,170,970 in 2016.

Without the grants, PTPTN would have posted huge losses every year throughout the entire period.