KUALA LUMPUR, 20 Jan 2009: MIC’s Maju Institute for Education Development (MIED) board of directors has agreed to appoint a three-member independent panel to investigate alleged financial mismanagement over the Asian Institute of Medicine, Science and Technology (AIMST), sources revealed.
At their board meeting today, AIMST directors also rejected an offer by former party vice-president and ex-treasurer-general Tan Sri K S Nijhar to resign as head of a three-man committee set up by the party to probe the awarding of AIMST contracts.
“Both Nijhar and (MIC deputy president Datuk G) Palanivel offered to resign but this was rejected by the board. However, they decided that an independent panel, made up of three professionals, would investigate the matter.
“The two (Nijhar and Palanivel) wanted to resign because they felt whatever the outcome of their probe, it could be viewed as biased due to their closeness to the party president (Datuk Seri S Samy Vellu).
The board, which met at the MIC headquarters, wanted the independent panel to investigate AIMST’s accounts, especially in the light of the cost of building the institute in Semeling, Kedah, having risen to more than RM500 million from an estimated RM230 million earlier.
The institute started operations about a year ago. MIED is the education arm of the MIC. AIMST is being run by MIED Capital Sdn Bhd.
Early this month, the MIED board of directors appointed a panel comprising Nijhar, Palanivel and disciplinary committee head Tan Sri G Vadiveloo to probe the awarding of the AIMST contracts.
“The independent panel would investigate all aspects of AIMST, including its construction cost. The board of directors would meet again in two weeks to sort out some technical matters.
“The independent panel would also be furnished with all files and documents pertaining to AIMST. The president wants good corporate governance in the running of AIMST. He stressed this at the board meeting this morning,” said a source.
The sources revealed that Samy Vellu was concerned over the awarding of three contracts said to have been given out at inflated value.
The independent panel will also investigate two other contracts given to companies, reportedly linked to an MIC leader.
Recently, an MIC official who was dropped from the party’s line-up, said he had nothing to hide as far as financial matters were concerned, and there was no misappropriation of funds or on the MIED contracts. — Bernama
anonymous student of AIMST says
Indeed the AIMST account needs to be probed, so that students are not forced to pay more due to their “missing” and “misplaced” payment made beforehand.