PETALING JAYA: A total of RM183.11mil in grant balances across four ministries have not been returned to the government.
These involve 7,904 projects, the Auditor-General’s Report (AG’s Report) 1/2026 says.
Of the amount, RM9.72mil or 5.3% of the balance had been outstanding for over 10 years, while RM89.82mil or 49% were owed between five and nine years.
The first series of the report said the figure mostly consisted of 7,823 projects involving RM110.67mil at the Higher Education Ministry.
This was followed by RM55.64mil in unreturned research grants involving 60 projects at the Investment, Trade and Industry Ministry (Miti).
The Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry (Mosti) has 19 projects with unreturned grants amounting to RM14.33mil.
The Agriculture and Food Security Ministry (KPKM), meanwhile, has two projects involving unreturned research grants amounting to RM2.47mil.
“The highest amount of unreturned balances is the Higher Education Ministry, involving five research universities amounting to RM110.67mil for 7,823 projects,” it said in a report published on its website yesterday.
The AG’s Report stated that the unreturned RM183.11mil pointed to weaknesses in financial control management, project monitoring and project closure procedures.
“This shows the research funds were not efficiently used,” it added.
It also mentioned that the unreturned research grant balances by Miti under the 11th Malaysia Plan involved the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida) and Malaysian Industrial Development Finance Bhd (MIDF) totalling RM55.64mil.
“The implementing agencies used the allocation balances to fund new projects under the 12th Malaysia Plan without the approval of the Finance Ministry and the Economy Ministry,” it said.
“Unreturned research grant balances, unmonitored by ministries, risk being used for purposes other than their original approval,” it added.
The Higher Education Ministry in its explanation to the AG, said the Higher Education Department had updated its records and identified outstanding research grant balances dating back to 2006.
The department has since formed a research fund balance management committee, which convened in August last year, to ensure proper governance and regulation over the use of funds.
“Subsequently, the ministry submitted a proposal regarding the use of fund balances to the Finance Ministry on Dec 4 last year, with further implementation pending the latter’s approval,” it added.
Mosti said the unused allocations for the National Institutes of Biotechnology Malaysia and Malaysia Debt Ventures amounting to RM140,000 and RM400,000, respectively, had been returned.
“Mosti applied to the Finance Ministry on Dec 16 last year to repurpose the RM13.79mil in uncommitted balances from Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd,” it said.
KPKM has also confirmed that the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (Mardi) had returned RM2.1mil from the Cannabinoid Project.
