The annual general meeting (AGM) of MIC's educational arm, Maju Institute of Educational Development (MIED) scheduled for Dec 3, has been postponed.

mic and mied education scandal MIED founder trustee KS Nijhar said a new date will be fixed soon.

He said the postponement was due to an error by the company (MIED) secretary in sending out notices for the meeting, he said.

Nijhar said the company secretary had made a mistake on the actual duration required to send out the notice calling for the AGM and has apologised for the error.

"The notice (calling for the AGM) should give 21 clear days notice instead of 14 days which was given by the company secretary.

"As such, we are fixing a new date for the AGM," he said in a statement here today.

He said the mistake was pointed out by former MIC deputy president S Subramaniam in a letter to the MIED recently.

"We thank him (Subramaniam) for bringing the matter (error) to our attention," he said.

Nijhar added that if Subramaniam did not highlight the matter, any person could have sought a court injunction to declare the AGM null and void.

‘Board illegally constituted'

NONE Meanwhile, Subramaniam in a separate press conference said that he was glad the MIED board has decided not to proceed with the meeting following his complain.

However he added that he had written a letter to the CEO of the Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM) Azmi Ariffin and to MIED's company secretary over the short notice given for an AGM.

He also said that there were other serious matters pointed out in his letter to the CCM chief executive officer and the company secretary, which have not been addressed.

He alleged that MIED's current board has been illegally constituted, with no locus standi to continue administering MIED.

Subramaniam explained that since no AGM has been held for 2008, the tenures of certain board members have already lapsed.

The affected board members include MIC president S Samy Vellu, M Mahalingam, Nijhar, G Vadiveloo, K Kumaran and T Marimuthu, who all happen to be above 70 years of age.

Subramaniam claimed that according to section 129(6) of the Companies Act, all board members who were above 70 years of age must be elected annually, and by specific resolutions agreed to by at least 75 percent of the members of MIED.

MIED's memorandum and articles of association also calls for a minimum quorum of five board members to sit in any meeting.

With a significant portion of the board being above 70 and no longer legally board members because of the conflict with section 129(6) as mentioned above, Subramaniam is claiming that any AGM in 2008 could not have fulfilled the quorum.

Freeze MIED's assets

In view of the "serious irregularities and violations" of the Companies Act and MIED's memorandum and articles of association, Subramaniam called for the CCM to intervene and investigate MIED.

He said this was because "MIED has been entrusted with millions of ringgit in grants and donations. It is of public interest that MIED be run according to the laws."

Subramaniam also suggested that the CCM should also freeze MIED's assets and stop the current ‘illegally constituted board' from continuing to administer MIC's education arm.

However he said has not considered any legal action and would depend on the expertise of the CCM to resolve the issue.