PETALING JAYA, 15 Apr: The PKR Strategy Director, Rafizi Ramli, claimed that there has been a misuse of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (Mosti) Research and Development (R&D) Grant fund.
This is because the RM1.152 billion grant was issued by the Federal Government in the past five years but only 20 R&D results are commercialised every year.
“This is a low amount of commercialisation compared to the amount in public funds spent by the government.
“This raises the question of what this fund was actually used on. Is it true that it was fully used for the commercialisation of R&D or was it used for other purposes,” he said in a press conference.
The Minister of Mosti, Datuk Dr Ewon Ebin, when launching the Mosti Commercialisation Year 2014, admitted that only 20 R&D findings are commercialised every year.
He also acknowledged that the rate is low and targets for it to be increased three times; a total of 60 research findings to be commercialised every year.
Rafizi explained that the amount of funds for this grant is higher than the National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) funds, amounting to RM250 million.
In this regard, he said that he will reveal some misuse of R&D funds and Mosti for other purposes this Friday.
He said this includes the decision to give the Mosti grant a large amount and raised the question involving intervention by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
“This shows how the method of grant (the giving of money with needing repayment) is used to help certain individuals when the ordinary citizen faces difficulties to get loans, let alone grants,” he said.
