Strengthening Governance of Madrasahs in light of Developments Relating to Recent Police Report Made by Madrasah Irsyad

3 Dr Wan Rizal asked the Minister for Social and Family Development and Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs whether he can provide an update on MUIS’ efforts to strengthen the governance of the madrasahs in light of the recent developments relating to the police report made by Madrasah Irsyad.

The Minister for Social and Family Development and Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs (Mr Masagos Zulkifli B M M): Mr Speaker, the hon Member has asked for an update on Madrasah Irsyad and its relationship with Irsyad Trust Limited (ITL), a public company limited by guarantee, formed in 2006.

Allow me to briefly recap the events that occurred and the actions the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS) has taken.

Since the formation of the Joint Madrasah System in 2008, the role of Madrasah Irsyad’s Board of Governors (BOG) has been to set strategic direction and oversee the management for the Madrasah. MUIS oversees the appointment of the BOG members. The Madrasah Management Committee (MMC) continued to exist until 2016 to assist the madrasah in its fundraising efforts.

Up until 2014, the madrasah carried out international projects that broadly promoted Islamic education and supported capacity building of Islamic schools in our region.

In 2014, the MMC decided that the Madrasah should move its international projects to ITL, in order to focus its efforts and resources on strengthening management and improving education outcomes.

Subsequently, MUIS' audits into the madrasah discovered questionable transactions and activities involving the use of the Madrasah's funds and resources for the activities of ITL. None of these transactions and activities were authorised by the BOG. Some of these transactions and activities may have resulted in the madrasah suffering financial losses.

For example, the annual audit of the madrasah's accounts in 2016 found that $2 million had been transferred from the madrasah to ITL in 2014 for its international operations, with the endorsement of the MMC, but without the knowledge or approval of the BOG. Following this discovery, MUIS requested ITL to return this $2 million sum to the madrasah, which ITL did so in full.

In April 2021, MUIS initiated a further audit on the madrasah to examine the financial transactions and relationship between the madrasah and ITL. Based on preliminary findings from this audit, MUIS lodged a Police report in July 2021. Since then, MUIS has been assisting the Police in their investigations into this case, which resulted in the recent charges tendered in court against a Director of ITL.

Earlier this month, the madrasah filed a civil claim against a Director in ITL and other related parties, to seek an account of their improper use of the madrasah's funds and resources for ITL's purposes and to recover losses caused to the madrasah.

As the court case and civil claims are ongoing, I am not able to provide more information at this point. But MUIS will continue to monitor the developments to ensure that there is accountability to the madrasah and the community.

In recent years, MUIS has put in place measures to strengthen governance across the madrasah sector. The importance of these measures has been reinforced by the problems discovered at Madrasah Irsyad.

MUIS has established the Mosque-Madrasah-Wakaf Shared Services to support the madrasahs in their efforts to manage their finances better and prepare their accounts for audit. This shared financial service improves financial efficiency and governance across the madrasahs.

Madrasahs are required to submit annual updates on their financial audits to MUIS and the BOG. This enables MUIS and the BOG to exercise financial oversight of the madrasahs, address gaps in a more timely manner and to identify and share lessons learnt on financial governance across the madrasah sector.

MUIS requires staff rotation at the leadership level to be more frequent in the madrasahs. This will strengthen governance and staff development.

MUIS has introduced a whistleblowing procedure across the madrasah sector. This encourages a culture of active feedback from madrasah staff on situations or decisions made by the madrasah leaders. Where there is any suspected wrongdoing, this should be reported to MUIS or any relevant law enforcement agency.

MUIS is also piloting the implementation of an IT and Data Policy Manual for the madrasah sector. This will strengthen the madrasahs’ data and information security policies and implementation.

Mr Speaker, our madrasahs are vital institutions to develop future religious teachers and scholars for our Muslim community. MUIS will continue to strengthen our madrasahs' efforts to deliver quality education and ensure good governance of the sector, so that we can build a strong cadre of asatizah who exemplify the three "C"s – Competency, Character and Citizenry – and provide religious guidance to our community to thrive as a Community of Success.

Mr Speaker: Dr Wan Rizal.

Dr Wan Rizal (Jalan Besar): Mr Speaker, I thank the Minister for sharing what happened in that timeline, as well as the countermeasures that were taken to prevent similar things from happening in the future. But I do have some questions about the timeline.

It started back in 2014 and it took some time before a report was made. I was just wondering whether this timeline could have been shortened, given the new countermeasures in place? And of course, I also worry about the IT and data capability that the Minister mentioned, that they are now implementing and working at. Is there any way we can hasten this because the data is pretty important for us to ensure in the system?

Mr Masagos Zulkifli B M M: Mr Speaker, MUIS has taken action whenever a discovery is made. A lot of these can come from the internal reporting, but these few discoveries that we have mentioned, including the $2 million transfer, came after we undertook an audit externally, into the madrasah as part of the process of ensuring governance and checks.

Whenever an irregularity has been detected internally or externally, MUIS would take action. For example, discovery of the $2 million transfer was done after an audit in 2016, although it was transacted in 2014 internally by the MMC. Without the audit, we probably would not have discovered it.

In the same way, too, MUIS commissioned a special review in 2021 – which is way past the 2016 timeline – to see whether there are even further transactions between the madrasah and ITL. It is in 2021, arising from the findings of this review, that MUIS filed a Police report.

These regular checks that we have to do, even when what seemed to have been settled, must be carried on in any institutions so that we can continue to be accountable to the community.

There is one more question that the Member asked about IT. As I mentioned just now, we do have to upgrade the IT capabilities as well as the governance around IT and data management in the madrasahs and that is a work in progress.