KUALA LUMPUR, July 27 — The Ministry of Health (MOH) plans to recover critical allowance payments from a medical doctor who was allegedly sexually harassed by a hospital director.
The female staff member of a government hospital in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, took extended medical leave for 101 days from December 2025 to March 2026, after alleged sexual harassment by her superior in the facility in October 2025.
The doctor appealed to Sabah state health director Dr William Gotulis last April 9 for an exemption from critical service incentive payment (BIPK) allowance clawbacks.
She pointed out that she had worked remotely on urgent tasks in December and reported for work in stages in February and March based on her health capacity, even though she was on sick leave, before fully resuming work on March 26.
“I’m making this application since I still continued to perform administrative functions in a permitted capacity throughout that period for the importance of service,” said the doctor in her letter, as sighted by CodeBlue.
“I would greatly appreciate your consideration and compassion to help lighten my financial burden during this period of health recovery.”
But Dr William rejected her appeal, citing a public service circular that said BIPK payments would stop if an officer took any kind of leave for more than 28 consecutive days, including weekends, public holidays, and work absence, without approval.
“Therefore, after reviewing your application, this department finds that your application cannot be considered because it doesn’t comply with the conditions for eligibility to receive BIPK,” he wrote in a July 3 letter, as sighted by CodeBlue.
Hospital management told the sexual harassment victim in a letter on the same day, as sighted by CodeBlue, that her BIPK payments would be clawed back via salary deductions beginning this August.
As the BIPK allowance for doctors is RM750 monthly, CodeBlue estimates that the complainant will lose at least RM2,000.
The doctor made another appeal to Dr William three days later, saying she didn’t take ordinary sick leave as she had undergone psychiatric treatment due to “psychological trauma in the workplace” caused by sexual harassment.
“The implementation of this BIPK recovery is deeply distressing and has placed additional emotional strain on me. This administrative decision effectively imposes a financial penalty on the medical leave that I was compelled to take due to psychological injury arising from the workplace,” the doctor wrote in a July 6 letter, as sighted by CodeBlue.
“At the same time, the institution’s response to the underlying causes that led to this trauma has yet to be fully resolved.
“I am concerned that this action amounts to secondary victimisation, whereby I, as the complainant and the affected officer, continue to bear the consequences of this workplace trauma, not only in administrative and psychological terms, but also through the additional financial burden.”
The Sabah state health director has yet to respond to the doctor’s second appeal, with just a week left before August.
MyHelp: Sexual Harassment Isn’t Workplace Bullying, Complaint Referred To Hospital Management
Besides instituting recovery of BIPK allowance payments, MOH took four months to reply to the doctor’s sexual harassment complaint that was submitted to the ministry’s MyHelp channel on December 4, 2025. MyHelp, which is run by the integrity unit at MOH’s headquarters in Putrajaya, was set up in 2022 specifically to manage staff’s workplace bullying complaints.
“Despite previous steps taken through internal escalation, the perpetrator remains physically present at the workplace, causing ongoing distress and violation of workplace boundaries,” she wrote.
MyHelp only sent a message to the complainant last April — after she returned to work following 14 weeks’ medical leave — through its portal that had to be manually checked, without an email notification.
“After a review, the Ministry of Health finds that this complaint is unrelated to the issue of workplace bullying. For your information, this MyHelp portal is a channel for bullying complaints, whereas issues related to sexual harassment must follow guidelines in Service Circular No 5, 2018,” said the MyHelp message, as sighted by CodeBlue, without specifying practical steps for the complainant to take.
MyHelp referred the sexual harassment victim’s complaint to hospital management, even though her report was against the hospital director: “This complaint will be forwarded to the management of the involved responsibility centre (PTJ) for further action.”
The message was simply signed off by MyHelp’s Urus Setia, without naming an officer who could help the complainant through the process.
According to MyHelp’s FAQ, regular complaints take 15 working days for case resolution, while complex cases take longer.
Service Circular No 5 2018 requires complainants to file a formal complaint to the integrity unit at the suspected sexual harassment perpetrator’s (PYDM) workplace. Psychology officers are mandated to refer the sexual harassment case to the Public Service Department (JPA) if the PYDM is a head of department of higher rank than them.
It’s unclear if MyHelp flagged the doctor’s sexual harassment complaint and referred it to JPA, beyond simply sending it to hospital management, especially since the accused perpetrator is the highest-ranked officer at the hospital.
Health director-general Dr Mahathar Abd Wahab’s office has acknowledged CodeBlue’s request for comment on the BIPK allowance clawback and the way MyHelp handled the complaint.
MOH Guidelines Define Workplace Bullying As Behaviour That ‘Endangers’ Person
The doctor, whose sexual harassment case is under a criminal investigation after a police report last January, was allegedly the second victim at the Kota Kinabalu hospital, after another female staff member filed an internal workplace sexual harassment complaint against the same perpetrator in July 2025.
Last Thursday, the Sabah state health department (JKNS) claimed that it was “committed to ensuring that every employee gets to work in a safe, mutually respectful, and conducive environment”, even though the hospital director continues to go to work as usual, one whole year after the first reported sexual harassment allegation against him.
Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad claimed in August 2025 that every case received via the MyHelp platform was investigated thoroughly, as he touted the dismissal of a head of department at a government hospital in Selangor in 2018 for sexual harassment during Dzulkefly’s first term in office.
“Even though that individual held a senior position within the ministry, I want to stress again that I have zero tolerance for bullying and such deplorable behaviour, especially when directed at women or those whom we are supposed to protect,” the New Straits Times quoted the health minister as saying at the launch of the MOH’s 2025 Workplace Bullying Management Guidelines.
“Instead of safeguarding them, we end up victimising them when they look to us for care and protection.”
The guidelines for MOH staff define workplace bullying as a “type of behaviour that endangers a person or a group of people”, without explicitly mentioning sexual harassment.
Dzulkefly, who has been stumping for Pakatan Harapan on the ground nearly every day in the Negeri Sembilan state election since nomination day, has yet to issue a statement on the sexual harassment cases in the Kota Kinabalu hospital, over four days after Warisan politicians first highlighted the allegations against the hospital director last July 22.
