Exco Quizzed by Police Over Alleged Abuse of Funds for Tamil Schools (The Sun)

Exco quizzed by police over alleged abuse of funds for Tamil schools

Maria J.Dass (courtesy of The Sun)

SHAH ALAM (Jan 19, 2010): Police from the commercial crime department of the Subang Jaya District police headquarters questioned Selangor executive councillor for welfare, estate workers and caring Dr Xavier Jayakumar government initiatives over a police report lodged on alleged abuse of funds allocated to Tamil schools.

Xavier was questioned by ASP Hamdan Jali and Insp Anfal from 4.30pm to 6pm at his office in the state secretariate building today.

On Jan 17 Klang Parent-Teacher Association chairperson G Jeganathan lodged a police report against him for allegedly abusing state allocations for Tamil schools in the state totalling RM1.67 million last year.

Jeganathan said the state government had given the funds, meant for upgrading the schools, to three NGOs without a clear explanation.

The NGOs in question are the Child Information, Learning and Development Centre (Child), Tamil Foundation Malaysia and Educational, Welfare and Research Foundation (EWRF).

According to Jeganathan, they received a letter signed by all PTA representatives, claiming the money was not received.

However, Xavier said details of the report were wishy-washy as the association which Jeganathan claimed to represent was non-existent.

"There is a Selangor Tamil Schools Parent-Teacher Association, so I really do not know who he represents," he said.

Asked if he felt this was a politically motivated move, Xavier said: "From what I have seen from videos, I’m sure that Jeganathan himself is not behind this as he seemed incoherent during the press conference just after he lodged the report."

He said RM4 million was approved by the Selangor government for Tamil schools in May 2009.

Out of this RM1.5 million was allocated to the three NGOs which had the expertise to carry out long-term programmes for the schools, while the remaining amount was given to Parent Teacher associations of the schools for infrastructure and facilities.

The state has the prerogative to decide who gets the allocation based on their qualification and expertise, Xavier said.

He said a six-month study was conducted to ensure the funds would have long-term benefits for the schools.

He said there was no such programmes in the past as there was no allocation for Tamils schools to begin with.

Xavier had said he would wait for the outcome of the investigations before deciding on his next course of action, which includes legal action against a frivolous report.

He said details of how the RM4 million funds were used could be viewed on his blog at xavierjayakumar.blogspot.com.