Masagos Zulkifli on governance in madrasah sector

The Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS) has put in place measures to strengthen governance in the madrasah sector. They include a shared financial service to help madrasahs better manage their finances and prepare their accounts for audit. Staff rotation at the leadership level is required to be more frequent, in order to strengthen governance. A whistleblowing procedure has been introduced. MUIS is also piloting an IT and data policy manual for the sector to strengthen security policies and implementation. These details were given by Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs Masagos Zulkifli in Parliament on Tuesday (Mar 21). He was replying to an MP’s question on MUIS’ efforts to strengthen governance in the sector after questionable transactions and activities were discovered involving the use of Madrasah Irsyad’s funds and resources for the activities of Irsyad Trust Limited (ITL), which was handling the madrasah’s international projects. MUIS lodged a police report in July 2021. A director of ITL was recently charged in court. 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 its funds and resources and recover losses.