Three non-governmental organisations (NGO) disclosed how they spent the RM1.58 million received from the Selangor state government, revealing details of their programmes for Tamil schools in the state.

NONE The NGOs were implicated in a police report made on Sunday against Selangor state exco Dr Xavier Jeyakumar by the Klang Parents Teachers Association’s chairperson, G Jeganathan.

                                       

The report alleged that he had abused state allocations for Tamil schools totalling up to RM1.67 million by disbursing the money to these NGOs without providing justification.

The NGOs involved are: Child Information, Learning and Development Centre (Child), Tamil Foundation Malaysia (TFM) and the Educational, Welfare and Research Foundation (EWRF).

NONE Programme coordinator for the NGOs, K Arumugam ( right ), admitted in a press conference yesterday that the three NGOs had collectively received RM1.58 million from the state government.

"The money has been used to help 97 Tamil schools all over Selangor," he said.

Programme Director of Child, Dr N Iyngkaran, said that the money had been used to build 15 pre-schools, provide special textbooks schemes for slow learners, and conduct extra classes.

"Through these programmes, we have managed to increase the passing rate of UPSR students from 20 percent to at least 50 percent in the past few years," he explained.

Funds from federal gov't as well

President of EWRF, S Pasupathi, said that they had done a survey for Tamil schools to ascertain their rights to the land on which they were built.

"Part of the money is also used for our English classes for primary students and to publish a  trilingual magazine, Elanthalir  for the school children," he added.

NONE TFM president K Uthayasoorian ( right ) said they had conducted nature awareness camps and motivation programmes for students.

Arumugam told reporters that these three NGOs have been in existence for the past 30 years and are well respected in the community.

"The NGOs did extensive studies on the programmes before the Selangor government approved the funds," he said, adding that the three NGOs utilised a combined total of more than RM3 million annually to run their programmes.

"We receive funds not only from the Selangor government but also the federal government and other big corporations as well," adding that they were open to public scrutiny.