Communications and Multimedia Minister, Gobind Singh Deo, has confirmed that four MCMC officials have resigned. This includes the chairman, Tan Sri Dr Halim Shafie and the COO, Datuk Dr Mazlan Ismail.
The minister didn’t reveal the reason for their resignation, but he did share during his ministry’s open house event that the chairman and COO had tendered their resignations last Monday and it will take effect from 1 July. He added that an official statement will be released soon and they have already identified several candidates to take over the roles.
This comes after the Communications and Multimedia Ministry had started an audit on two MCMC managed funds that amounted to RM9.3 billion. This includes the Universal Service Provision (USP) fund which is used to provide internet access to underserved communities, especially in rural areas.
There was also a controversial incident where MCMC had ordered telcos to block MalaysiaKini’s undi.info on the night of GE14. MalayMail had obtained a copy of what appears to be MCMC’s official letter that instructed all telcos to block 3 sites. The letter that was signed by Datuk Dr Mazlan Ismail on behalf of the Chairman claims that the sites were violating Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act. MCMC had issued a statement that live.undi.info was blocked due to complaints that the information was inaccurate but the blockade was lifted after they have found that the criteria to block the site is no longer valid.
On a separate matter, the minister had also mentioned in an interview with The Malaysian Reserve that a special task force would be formed to study the possibility of merging both RTM and Bernama to save on costs. Bernama is the sole local-based wire news agency which receives an operational grant from the government. Meanwhile, RTM is 72-year old public broadcaster that manages TV1, TV2 and TV Okey plus dozens of national and local radio stations. The savings can be used to fund other innovative and modern content creation.
