MIED - CEO lodges police reports

The plot thickens in MIC education arm's financial fiasco as the chief executive officer of Maju Institute for Education Development (MIED), P Chithirakala Vasu, 38, today lodged two police reports disputing all claims of misdeeds involving some missing contract documents.

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Breaking her silence for the first time since the allegations erupted in December, Chithirakala told reporters today that she can no longer stay mum over claims of wrongdoings in awarding contracts as MIC party president S Samy Vellu had gone out all out to damage her image.

Chithirakala, who has served at the MIED for the past 14 years, was told to go on leave pending an internal investigation into the alleged irregularities in giving out maintenance contracts for the Asian Institute of Medicine, Science and Technology (AIMST) University.

However, she lodged two reports this morning at the Shah Alam police station.

One was on RM2 million worth of donations which were collected to help the tsunami victims in 2004 under the Ministry of Works, when Samy was its minister. The money was subsequently transferred to the account of MIC’s social welfare arm Yayasan Pemulihan Sosial (YPS).

The second report was on missing files and documents from her office at the MIC headquarters.

According to her, Samy had said that the cash was extras from the funds that were collected and intended for future use for the people of Sri Lanka (where an ongoing civil war has caused the loss of hundreds of lives).

“Sometime in late February 2008 (just before the March 8 election), Samy called me on my mobile phone and informed me that the Ministry of Works treasury would be transferring a sum of RM2 million into YPS and asked me to place the sum in fixed deposit,” she stated.

In a move to clear her name, Chithirakala noted that she was now making the report “to avoid the possibility of Samy using the RM2 million for any other unauthorised purpose and putting the blame on me”.

Heated argument with Samy

Chithirakala also revealed that YPS had received a grant of RM120 million for three years to execute assistance for those who are financially and socially-challenged.

The grant, according to Chithirakala, who was the CEO of YPS until recently, was given four times a year in RM10 million instalments beginning this year.

However, although the money was supposed to be used for those who were identified to be financially-challenged, Samy had tried to use it for those he preferred.

Chithirakala, in the second police report, claimed that her personal files which were kept in her office in the MIC headquarters in Kuala Lumpur were missing and engaged the assistance of the police to retrieve her files as she was told to stay out of the premises until further notice.

She had also described the sequence of events since their fallout on Dec 31, where Chithirakala had noted that she had an “heated argument” with Samy when he made baseless allegations linking her to another senior MIED board member.

“At one point I raised my voice and challenged him to sack me and that I will meet him in court. My reaction angered him and he uttered (that) the court is not the place we will meet. I (Samy) will make sure that the police arrest and embarrasses you,” stated Chithirakala.

Ever since, more than six show-cause letters have been issued to Chithirakala as well as police reports by MIC vice-president S Sothinathan of missing files pertaining to the contracts awarded to AIMST.

On Jan 2, Chithirakala said she had went to her office only to discover that there were “individuals waiting to conduct an audit on the accounts of MIED”.

Asked to make unauthorised payments

“I cooperated and handed to them the company documents that they had requested...in the meantime, I gave my replies to the show-cause letters given on Dec 31 with all the original supporting documents.

“At around 2pm on the same day, the MIED board meeting commenced and I was not called to attend...(but) just before the meeting I was slapped with yet another show-cause letter and gave my reply immediately. (However later) Samy created a scene in the MIED office and I was told to leave pending the completion of the investigation,” she said in the report.

“I left without even taking my personal documents and files...later that day I learnt that a lot of my files were removed from the MIED office using lorries on Samy's instructions to an undisclosed location,” she said.

Chithirakala, who was once amongst Samy notable favourites, also revealed the party head's unorthodox ways in managing government awarded funds and donations.

“There came a point after he (Samy) had lost the election when he wanted me to make a payment of RM2 million to a particular contractor without any documentation.

“It was for the landscape contractor whose contract which initially was at RM27 million rose to RM30 million but there were authorised receipts for the exceeded amount and yet in addition to that Samy wanted to pay RM2 million in compensation,” she said.

However, Chithirakala said she had refused to submit the payments and that angered Samy.

“He wanted me to pay the contractor without proper documents. I am a chartered accountant, it is not my job to question who he (Samy) is giving contracts to but when it comes to payments I have to make sure that it is legitimate.

“We have projects managers and we have quantity surveyors who certify all the work that have been done and we pay according to the certificate of completion signed by the consultants and professionals,” said Chithirakala.

Asked if she had ever done anything wrong when requested by Samy, Chithirakala said: “There have been occasions, but I have always avoided such things.”

‘Hijacking of MIED & AIMST’

She said the incident over the payment to the contractor was what led to what she described as the “hijacking of MIED and AIMST”.

“I took over as the accountant in 1995 when MIED was still very small and I helped in developing the education arm and I am proud to say that we are now worth RM1 billion,” said Chithirakala.

Chithirakala claimed that as Samy's days as the MIC president “were numbered” following the lost of his stronghold in Sungai Siput, he wanted to hold onto his position in MIED and release it from the hold of MIC.

“The bulk of the RM1 billion is in AMIST and now that he is the chancellor of the university, he wants to remain as the chancellor and the chairman of MIED...(and) the only way to maintain this is to remove MIED from MIC,” she said, adding that Samy was even pushing to replace the arm's 35 board members.

She added that although it was legally possible, it was not the “morally right” thing to do as MIED was developed under MIC.

“It is very wrong because I cannot let what happen to Maika Holdings (MIC's investment arm) happen to MIED,” said Chithirakala, also revealing suspicions that Samy was plotting to replace her with his son, Vel Paari, who is also the CEO of Maika Holdings.

The mother of four said that she had bravely come out today despite warning from her lawyers, instead of hiding.

“There are people taking photos of me and observing my house constantly...he (Samy) can do anything but I can't as I am just an ordinary person,” expressed Chithirakala, who soon after broke down into tears.