KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Rugby (MR) is now looking to focus on strengthening their finances after settling various issues, which included reaffirming the legitimacy of its office bearers, recently.
MR honorary secretary Fahmy Jalil claimed that the national body is now back on track after conducting an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) in Kuala Lumpur on Nov 16.
It is the second EGM MR have conducted this year. The first was held in May to present the audited accounts for 2021 and 2022 which were not presented previously as they were under investigation by police due to an embezzlement case which was discovered in 2022.
MR had conducted their annual general meeting (AGM)-cum-elections in December last year.
"When we conducted the AGM (Dec 2023), two states which had been deregistered by SCO had attended - Penang and Perlis - so we had to amend the Information to be Submitted (MYKB) to the Sports Commissioner's Office (SCO). This is why we had to conduct another EGM," said Fahmy today.
"The objective of this new EGM was to approve the minutes of the AGM (Dec 2023) and also approve the committee members for the 2023-2027 term (elected during Dec 2023 AGM).
"From the 27 affiliate representatives that attended the EGM on Saturday (Nov 16), 20 voted to accept while six abstained and one rejected.
"This majority (vote) shows that the affiliates continue to give us the mandate to lead the association and that the committee is legitimate.
"We have also settled our audited accounts and have prepared all information required by SCO. In terms of paperwork, we are in the clear.
"With this mandate, our president Amir Amri Mohamad can now focus on strengthening our finances. We can now focus on moving forward and also strengthen our various boards."
Fahmy disclosed that Perlis and Penang had been deregistered as they had not submitted the required MYKB to SCO.
In December 2022, MR discovered that an administration staff member had embezzled a large sum of money, believed to exceed RM1 million, from the national body's accounts with withdrawals stretching back to 2019.
Fahmy added that Asia Rugby (AR) have also been furnished with the necessary audited accounts for recent years.
"We have also cleared everything with AR, otherwise I would not have been able to contest in the recent AR AGM," said Fahmy.
Fahmy was elected as an AR exco member during their AGM held in Bangkok on Nov 8.