A contributor to the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) lodged a second police report this morning at the commercial crimes unit of the Kuala Lumpur police headquarters, alleging fraudulent withdrawal of funds from her account.

In her report, office manager Kathy Scott alleged that contributions amounting to more than RM4,800 had been fraudulently withdrawn and deposited in a bank account that does not belong to her.

Police told her that the complaint would be investigated. EPF officers dealing with the case could not be contacted by malaysiakini for comment.

Scott said she had applied to the EPF office in 1987 to close her account under the 'leaving country withdrawal scheme', as she was leaving permanently for the UK.

On Dec 16, 1987, the EPF wrote to inform her that all the paperwork had been completed to enable her to collect the payment warrant and close the account personally. The letter was sent to her family home in Petaling Jaya.

However, as Scott was no longer in the country by then, she claimed she made no attempt to withdraw the funds.

'Money withdrawn'

In June 2001, when her brother checked on the status of her account, he was told that the payment warrant was no longer valid and that Scott would have to apply for another warrant. At the time, the account showed a balance of RM4,859.63.

On her return to Malaysia for two weeks later that year, she contacted the EPF which insisted the money had already been withdrawn in 1987.

It said payment was made on Dec 22 by cheque in her name, deposited in an account at the United Malayan Banking Corporation in Jalan Sultan Sulaiman, Kuala Lumpur. Scott denies that she ever had an account with that bank.

She then filed a complaint with the EPF and lodged a police report on the matter. Following this, the EPF conducted an internal investigation, seeking police help to verify the thumb print on the back of the cheque that was cashed.

Information disputed

Scott, who has remained in UK between 2001 and now, said she has been corresponding with EPF officials by email all this time to check on the outcome of the inquiry.

On Jan 3 this year, the police wrote to the EPF to confirm that the thumb print on the cheque matched that of Scott, supplied earlier to the pension fund.

However, she only found this out yesterday when she went to the EPF office in Kuala Lumpur to follow up on her complaint.

She was told that her account had been closed on Dec 12, 1987, and that the EPF could not do anything more since the police had verified the thumb print.

However, Scott disputed the date of closure of the account since this would have been several days before the EPF notification letter had been issued (on Dec 16).

She also said she could not have acted on the notification since she was not in the country at the time. Even if her family had forwarded the letter to her, it could not have reached her for at least a week.

"Ever since I raised the matter of the withdrawal of my money, I have not managed to obtain any straight answers. Instead of taking my case seriously, the EPF has insisted that I have withdrawn the money but that I may have forgotten all about it," she said.

"All this time during my communication with them, I have been given the run-around. Officers have been giving me contradictory answers. No one can tell me how my money could have been withdrawn."

Scott, who leaves Malaysia on Thursday, added that she has no choice but to leave the matter to the police now.