Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) secretary-general Stanley Ajang has assured branch chairpersons that the seven boxes containing the annual returns of their respective branches are safe while in the custody of party headquarters.

"They can rest assured that nothing will happen to their boxes which are sealed, chained, locked and placed in a strongroom," he said in a signed press statement faxed to malaysiakini late this evening.

The two-page press statement was to "clarify the situation and the events that transpired" in order to give the public and PBDS members the facts following many differing press reports.

One collected

Ajang, who is also the state assemblyperson for Belaga, said that o­n March 31 this year, eight metal boxes were received by party headquarters which were supposed to consist 177 branch AGM reports and annual returns.

"One box had already been collected without my prior knowledge," he said. "Therefore, I feel it is my duty to safeguard the contents of the other boxes to ensure they do not fall into the wrong hands."

According to him, PBDS executive secretary Henry Lian was instruced by him (Ajang) to give back the AGM reports and annual returns to the rightful owners, namely, branch chairpersons and secretaries who had arrived o­n April 29 morning but subject to certain conditions.

The conditions were that o­nly the chairperson or secretary of the branch was allowed to collect the documents; the chairperson or secretary of the branch would be required to fill the prescribed forms, duly signed and witnessed before the documents were released to them; the headquarters was to retain a copy of all documents; and under no circumstances were the boxes, with all the contents to be carried out unless the above had been fu lfilled.

Ajang said the conditions were imposed to ensure that the documents were collected by the correct chairperson/secretary and to prevent the headquarters staff from passing the documents to the wrong or unauthorised person.

He described it as an administrative directive designed to ensure maximum transparency and proper accountability with respect to the whole exercise.

"However, all the conditions could not be fulfilled and the chairpersons and secretaries went home empty-handed for a simple reason - there were no keys to open the metal boxes."

Follow rules

He was explaining why the party headquarters staff did not release the boxes yesterday when supporters of the faction supporting party information chief and presidential aspirant Dr James Masing turned up at party headquarters to collect them.

Masing, who is also state minister of social development and urbanisation, had described the action of the party as rather 'high handed' and unprecedented in the party's history.

Ajang said as party secretary-general, he must ensure that all rules and regulations were followed for the good and unity of the party.

He also asked these and all other branches to submit their annual returns properly and not to use sealed boxes which had never been done before.

"Therefore, I hope that whoever is keeping the keys to kindly open the boxes so these branch chairpersons and secretaries can collect their documents as soon as possible so that we can receive their AGM reports and annual returns."