Sabah consumer activists, Nordin Thani and Hashimah Hasbullah Yahya, deputy president and secretary-general respectively of the Consumers Association of Sabah and Labuan (Cash) want their president, Patrick Sindu, to step aside temporarily while the duo resolve the NGO’s newly-discovered unregistered status and sort out its finances.

The duo have also pledged to provide Sindu with an opportunity to clear himself of the various allegations leveled at him.

kitingan project ic 250107 patrick sindu Sindu ( left ), meanwhile, remains unperturbed by the controversy swirling around him and dismissed all allegations as part of "a plot by a certain someone to get rid of him". His remarks have been echoed by the association’s treasurer, Claudius George.

Initially, Sindu also denied receiving any funds or grants from the federal government or monies from members of the public. He, however, later corrected himself and denied any misuse of funds.

Hashimah explained at an interview that she was forced to lodge a police report on Monday, along with Thani, to protect herself and other Cash officials against charges of criminal breach of trust after learning from the president himself at a meeting on Jan 23 that "the association had no more funds in its accounts".

Suspecting something amiss, the secretary-general disclosed that she made enquiries at the Registrar of Societies (ROS) on the association’s status and also obtained its bank statements from Maybank branches in Karamunsing and Sadong Jaya in Kota Kinabalu. Both the savings accounts were frozen following the police reports and contain RM25,000 and RM5,000 respectively.

"We discovered to our shock that Cash was rejected by the ROS in 1991 in a bid to change the name of the Sabah Consumers Association (SCA) registered in 1978 and all the SCA branches were also never registered," said Hashimah.

"The bank statements also show various unauthorised withdrawals from the association’s bank accounts.

"We did not bother to find out more from the ROS earlier, out of respect for the president. It wasn’t until discrepancies began to emerge that we finally decided to verify with the ROS. Cash was rejected because its Malay constitution was not approved and was different from the official English constitution of SCA," she said.

NGO's reputation on the line

Thani said almost all the exco members were behind the president despite the controversies surrounding him.

"I have no choice but to protect myself from being accused as being part of the conspiracy to hide the funds with the intention to deceive our members and the public," added Thani. "We have been told by the ROS that we cannot use the name Cash, its logo and even the office in Kepayan because no application was made to register it.

"Whatever meetings take place are informal, not official. So, we cannot talk now about tabling the financial report at the AGM on March 15. The accounts of the association have not been audited since 2006."

Thani, who issued a press statement two weeks ago that he was quitting Cash soon to form the Sabah Muslim Consumers Association, urged members of the public to check with the ROS on the status of Cash for themselves.

He denied that he was part of efforts to topple Sindu as president of Cash. "Why can I bring him and the association down if the public knows very well that we are running an illegal association?" he asked.

"The main agenda is to clear all the mess and damage done to the association and to bring back the confidence of the members and consumers in general to support the association. The president has ignored his responsibility to save the association."

One particular beef against Sindu is that unknown to other members, Cash received a RM50,000 grant from the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry in two installments of RM20,000 and RM30, 000 for consumer awareness activities last year.

Hashimah claimed that "the sums were not used as intended by the ministry but for other payments".

Both Thani and Nordin are also probing whether Cash has received funds from overseas and has some initial information, in at least one instance, that "either US$5,000 monthly or yearly" was channeled to the NGO from the US.

Hashimah disclosed that both Thani had separate text messages from Sindu demanding that they meet him separately to discuss the brewing crisis in Cash but they responded that any such meeting must be held at the association with the whole exco present. They are leaving it to "the authorities concerned to take all the necessary action against Cash in the interest of the consumer movement in Sabah".

It is not known how the federal government could channel funds and grants to an unregistered body like Cash and how the NGO was able to open bank accounts, questions which might stymie the police reports lodged by Hashimah and Thani against their president.

Cash co-coordinator in Keningau, Padris Sitim, feels that both Thani and Hashimah have tarnished the image of the NGO and should have settled their differences, if any, with the president internally.