MDEC CEO on voluntary leave amid probe into ADAX project

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia Digital Economy Corp (MDEC) CEO Datuk Yasmin Mahmood has gone on voluntary leave pending an investigation into the organisation's Asean Data Analytics Exchange (ADAX) project.
The investigation was initiated by Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo.
According to MDEC's website, ADAX enables the development of the entire data analytics ecosystem through building human capital, infrastructure, data aggregation and community.
At its launch on March 28, 2017, ADAX CEO Sharala Axryd had stated that its aim was to produce 20,000 data professionals by 2020, out of which 10% would be data scientists.
"Our CEO Datuk Yasmin is on voluntary leave starting yesterday as she believes this is necessary to ensure a completely transparent investigation and an independent outcome. I am sure that you will agree with the management that this gesture by Yasmin is commendable as she continues to hold MDEC up to the highest values," an internal email signed off by MDEC COO Datuk Ng Wan Peng and sighted by SunBiz read.
The date of the internal email is not known.
Ng, who will lead the organisation in the interim, said MDEC would share an internal audit performed on the ADAX project in March this year with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and relevant authorities.
"Kindly be informed that as part of upholding our commitment to the MACC Ikrar Bebas Rasuah earlier this year, an internal audit was performed on the ADAX project in March 2018. The complete internal audit report will be shared with the MACC and relevant authorities, and we are committed to working closely with the authorities to complete investigations into the allegations you may have heard about concerning ADAX," she said.
An MDEC spokesperson declined to comment when contacted.
Gobind said on Saturday an investigation was called as a result of concerns raised over the project conceptualised to build critical mass of talent in the big data analytics segment and develop the ecosystem for it.
"I have called for a full investigation into the concerns raised over this project. A probe is currently being undertaken by MDEC into the matter.
"The questions raised relate to, among others, whether or not there was a conflict of interest between the programme managers and training providers," he added.
Gobind expects the complete report on the project to be presented to him soon.