Three non-governmental organisations claim that a conspiracy is behind the police report incriminating them in abusing state allocations for Tamil schools.

NONE Yesterday, Klang's Parents Teachers Association chairperson G Jeganathan filed a police report against Selangor state exco Dr Xavier Jayakumar ( left ) for allegedly abusing state allocations for Tamil schools totalling up to RM 1.67 million.

The three NGOs implicated in the police report are Child Information, Learning and Development Centre (Child), Tamil Foundation Malaysia and the Educational, Welfare and Research Foundation (Ewrf).

Jeganathan claimed that Jayakumar allocated the money to these NGOs without providing justification.

Program coordinator for the NGOs, K Arumugam, said that the police report lodged by G Jeganathan was to discredit Dr Xavier Jayakumar and it is politically motivated.

Jeganathan police report ipd klang 170110 Arumugam claims that Jeganathan ( right ) is in cohorts with a disgruntled PKR member, S Murali.

Murali happens to be president of a Parents Teachers Association (PTA) in a Tamil school in Subang Jaya.

President of Tamil Foundation Malaysia, K Uthayasoorian supports Arumugam’s claim and questioned the sincerity of Jeganathan’s move.

“I have never heard of the existence of Klang’s PTA and I am the president of SKJT Simpang Lima, Klang which is the biggest Tamil school in Malaysia,” he said.

PTAs do not handle funds

According to Uthayasoorian, PTAs do not have the capacity to handle school funds.

This, he said, is because members of the PTA change every year and they do not have the power or the responsibility of a school board.

“The school needs to have a school board of governance to be given the responsibility of handling money,” he said.

bukit jalil estate tamil school protest 231107 banner He added that most Tamil schools do not have such organisations and therefore, the allocation is paid to the NGOs as they have a proven track record.

This was why, he explained, NGOs are not directly answerable to school PTAs.

Ewrf president S Pasupathi agreed and invited the PTAs and parents to evaluate their programmes to give constructive criticism.

NGOs open to scrutiny

Arumugam explained that the three NGOs have collectively received RM 1,588,380 from the Selangor state government to improve Tamil schools in Selangor.

The allocation has been used to fund various programs such as extra classes for slow learners, schools surveys and student awareness camps to improve the educational standards of the underprivileged.

Arumugam further informed Malaysiakini that a total of 24,536 students and 289 schools have benefited from these programmes.

Indian NGOs for SPM 12-subject coalition It was also revealed that these NGOs have been helping the Indian communitiy for the past 30 years and are known for their transparency.

According to Pasupathi, the NGOs are audited yearly and their annual report is published on their website.

“All the details and information about the programs can be found in the NGOs website, or else interested parties can always call us up,” Pasupathi said.

When asked, Uthayasoorian said that the NGOs will be having a meeting today and a press conference will be held by the end of the week to clarify this issue.