TARCian Alumni Association (TAA) urges TARC Education Foundation (TARC EF) towards Greater Public Governance and Accountability
Background information
KolejTunku Abdul Rahman College (KTAR) or TAR College was founded in 1969 and eventually became a University College during early 2013. All property rights and donations were attributed to the TARC Trust Fund (TARC TF), including the donation from the Malaysian Chinese community as well as the government’s RM1-to-RM1 Matching Grant, established under the Trust Act.
After TAR College was upgraded to a private university college, namely Tunku Abdul Rahman University College (TAR UC) in February 2013, TARC Trust Fund has ceased operations and all assets were channeled to a new company established under Company Act, namely TARC Education Foundation (company No. 1033820M), which was incorporated on February 4, 2013.
TARC Education Foundation (TAR EF) structural issue
TARC EF, registered under Company Act, is a company incorporated limited by guarantee. Currently TARC EF has thirteen (13) subscribed voting members (all of them are current or former MCA senior leaders) and two (2) “ex-officio members” alumni representatives (these ex-official members do not have voting right for member admission approval for the Foundation).
The structure of the Foundation’s membership is exclusive, and anyone who wants to become member of the Foundation must be approved by majority of the existing ordinary members.
Board of Trustees (BOT) is the highest authority of TARC EF that is empowered with major decision making relating to all capital and operating expenditures. Thus, BOT must be well represented and operate independently in a transparent manner at all times. Currently the TARC EF-Board of Trustees is composed of eight (8) members where all eight of their names are a match from existing subscribed members of TAR EF.
TAA, alumni & the general public concern on the following issues;
1. Accountability and Transparency of Foundation – looking at the existing structure and nature of TARC EF’s set-up where it is dominated by single-political party members, it creates doubts on right representation, thus accountability and transparency issues of the Foundation is questionable.
2. Representativeness issue of TARC EF – most of the accumulated funds are donated by general public, community leaders and government grants/funding; thus the Foundation should be rightfully owned by various representations from Malaysian Chinese Community or reputable organization, not solely by senior leaders of MCA as evidenced from existing structure of TARC-EF.
3. Public Governance issue – the composition of the Board of Trustee (BOT) do not comply with the M&A of the Foundation (TARC EF). According to the M&A, BOT shall at all times be maintained that at least 50% of the total number of trustees must be third parties having no connection with the Foundation or any of its founders. As TAR UC is a non-profitable education institution, public governance and compliance issue need to be properly addressed to ensure continual and sustainable operation of TAR UC.
TAA hope that the Foundation will review its current structure and representation to clarify and eliminate the above concerns. TAA supports the separation of politics and education and is willing to act as a bridge to transform TARUC into a community university that continually provides quality and affordable tertiary education to all Malaysians.
TAA believes that apolitical individuals with the right qualifications and competencies should be invited to join TARC EF and TARC EF-BOT. With this, TARC EF can achieve greater credibility and good public governance, accountability and transparency to ensure TARC Education Foundation to operate and be governed in a most effective manner.
Dato’ Yap Kuak Fong
President
TARCian Alumni Association (TAA)
Note: TARCian Alumni Association (0351-12-WKL) established on 3 February 2012 and is the official Alumni Association that is recognized by the Tunku Abdul Rahman University College (TARUC) and MOE (Ministry of Education). TAA members comprising of graduates from all faculties and extra mural studies offered by TARUC. As of today, TAA has close to 10,000 members and you may log on to our webpage www.tarcalumni.my for more information.