Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Youth today lodged a report with the Anti Corruption Agency (ACA) against Selangor Menteri Besar Dr Mohd Khir Toyo, the Selayang Municipal Council (MPS) and the Sri Maha Mariamman temple management over unaccounted public funds.

PKR Youth vice chief M Manikavasagam said following the police's alleged failure to act on a report lodged with the department on Feb 7, they decided to bring the matter to the ACA's attention.

The ACA report was jointly filed by Manikavasagam, deputy Youth chief Faizal Sanusi and information chief Latheefa Koya in Kuala Lumpur.

The trio want the corruption watchdog to ascertain the whereabouts of the RM4.52 million, which has gone missing, from the RM5 million allocated to build the temple's cultural centre in Batu Caves.

"When I lodged the report at the Gombak district police headquarters almost two weeks ago, a police officer, DSP Wan Zainuddin, refused to record my statement on the matter," said Manikavasagam when met later.

According to him, the police officer was the same person in charge of investigating earlier reports lodged against the temple for unfairly charging devotees money to perform religious rituals.

Police acted unlawfully

He said no police action has been taken so far to solve that dispute which cropped up more than three years ago.

Despite numerous attempts, Zainuddin could not be reached for comment.

Meanwhile, Latheefa, who is also a lawyer, said it was not right and unlawful for the police to refuse statements made by the public, especially persons connected with the case.

The delegation added that reports will be lodged with the Bukit Aman federal police headquarters if the police continued to refuse to investigate the case.

The ACA report, which was received by Edwin Ipok from the agency's Forensic Accounting Unit, spelt out details of how the temple management revealed on national television that they have only so far received RM480,000 of the money to build the centre.

It took to task the menteri besar - who confirmed the RM5 million project last February and estimated its completion at the end of 2004 - for failure to protect public funds.

The MPS was also rapped for claiming ignorance to the money's whereabouts.

Diverting attention

PKR Youth also questioned the municipal council's recent announcement that a giant statue located at the foot of the Batu Caves temple would be demolished.

"The council are diverting the issue while threatening the temple authorities. The statue and other buildings weren't a problem before the RM5 million issue was raised. The statue was built two years ago," Faizal told reporters after handing over the ACA report.

The 39.62 metre-high Lord Muruga statue, according to MPS, is a safety hazard and its erection was not approved.

"Rightfully, they should not demolish it. Have MPS actually inspected these structures when claiming it isn't safe? They're just tying to deflect attention on the issue of the missing funds," claimed Manikavasagam.

The trio insisted that the main issues here were that of transparency and accountability of public departments and funds.

PKR Youth plans to follow up with the ACA in two weeks. In the meantime they said that the Selangor MB will definitely be contacted and he will be urged to take steps to address this scandal openly.

The temple committee chairperson R Nadarajah, when contacted later, refused to comment.