KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Rugby (MR) held an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to present their audited accounts for 2021-2022 in Kuala Lumpur today.
The meeting turned out to be a heated affair which saw representatives from Sabah Rugby Union (SRU) walking out as they were not happy with various issues.
In the end, 12 out of 15 MR affiliates that attended the EGM voted to conditionally accept (terima bersyarat) the audited accounts for 2021-2022.
The condition is that MR must furnish their affiliates with more details on money spent during the period.
The accounts for 2021-2022 were not presented during last year's AGM as MR's accounts were still being investigated by the police due to an embezzlement case from 2022.
In December 2022, MR discovered that an administration staff had embezzled a large sum of money, believed to exceed RM1 million, from the national body's accounts with withdrawals stretching back to 2019.
SRU president Velayuthan Tan and secretary Ramesh Lachmanan both claimed that the EGM was not valid. The duo walked out midway through the EGM.
"The EGM should have been a non-starter. Notices for EGMs should be issued at least 14 days before but they only sent it to us on May 8," said Velayuthan.
"Instead, they held a vote to decide whether to proceed with the meeting (today). Then what is the point of having a constitution?"
"There were also a lot of discrepancies in the accounts. When we asked the accountant where he got the figures from, was it from the falsified accounts from 2021? The accountant said yes," added Ramesh.
"If the accounts were falsified, how can they be used in the EGM? The accounts (presented today) also had a lot of contradicting details and figures.
"There was RM2.6 million paid out which they said was for 'advances and paid out', who was it paid out to? They don't have the details.
"There was also 'RM2.5 million in miscellaneous charges'. What did you spend on RM2.5 million? No answer.
"How can we in good conscience vote for this audited accounts? So we walked out."
SRU said that they will consider filing a report with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
"The Youth and Sports Minister (Hannah Yeoh) had in February advised to file reports with the police and MACC. MR only filed a police report," said Ramesh.
"We will discuss this with our SRU committee. We could file a report with MACC."
MR's leadership held a press conference immediately after the EGM.
They admitted that they were late to distribute the notice for the EGM but assured that there were no issues with the expenses listed in the accounts.
It is understood that some of them were reimbursements to exco members who had forwarded their own money to run programmes.
"We had already prepared the notice letter for the EGM on time but were late to distribute it," said MR president Amir Amri Mohamad.
"We, however, held a vote today to decide on whether to go ahead with the EGM and the majority of the affiliates agreed.
"We will provide all the affiliates with the breakdown of the expenses within the next week."
MR honorary secretary Fahmy Jalil said that not all of the figures in the accounts from 2021-2022 were falsified.
"There are figures which we were able to verify (to be correct) by checking with the people who actually ran the programmes at the time," said Fahmy.
"The auditor explained very clearly where the numbers were obtained, however, SRU's representatives had already left the meeting by then.
"If the MACC wanted to investigate us, they would have already done so. They don't need us to file a report to do so."
The administration staff, who was in charge of MR's accounts, is alleged to have falsified the signatures of then-president Datuk Shahrul Zaman Yahya and treasurer Datuk Ahmad Zaki Zahid to make cash withdrawals.
The staff then falsified the accounts to cover up the withdrawals.
MR exco member ACP Najib Hamzah said the investigation into the case is currently in its final stage.
"We are in constant communication with the investigating officer and IPD Dang Wangi. The case remains in investigation but is in the final stage," said Najib during the same press conference.
"The suspect has been identified. We are awaiting more information from the Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP).
"I am not able to disclose more than that."