KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Canoe Association (MASCA) have given a period of seven days for THEIR former president, Datuk S. Subramaniam, to return the association’s money that went missing which amounts to RM14,662.
According to the association’s deputy president, Datuk Michael Wong, the money was found to be missing from the association after three suspicious transactions took place on November 5th and 23rd as well as on December 7th last year.
Michael said that based on checks with the bank, two withdrawal transactions on November 23rd and December 7th were done by Subramaniam himself, and at the time he was no longer MASCA president after the end of the Annual General Meeting (AGM) that was held on November 17 last year.
"We found out after taking over the reins here at MASCA that there was a flow of money going out by cheque without the approval of the association’s new leadership.
"From a legal aspect actually old committee members do not have the power or authority to carry out or perform any monetary transactions, so this should not be happening really.
"So we want to know what is really going on and we are giving a period of seven days for MASCA’s former president to respond to our show cause letter dated today (Thursday),” he said.
Michael explained that even though it does not involve a large amount of money, such stern action had to be taken so that it serves as a valuable lesson to all.
"It must be pointed out that we are not trying to shame or discredit anyone, our intention is to inform even though we are not such a big sports association, as we want to create and apply good, noteworthy and correct management practices.
"This issue has somewhat dented MASCA’s new committee’s plans to carry out a transformation for the sport of canoeing in Malaysia because after a meeting held on January 11, we decided to freeze the association’s account until this issue is resolved,” he said.
For the record, Subramaniam chose not to defend his position as then president of MASCA during the AGM on November 17 last year, with Datuk Seri Megat Shahriman Zaharuddin taking up the post after seeing of the challenge from two other candidates.
At present, Subramaniam still holds the post of vice president of the Malaysia Paralympic Council (MPC).