A company said to be owned by MIC central working committee member S Vell Paari is reportedly being investigated in Australia for not paying its staff for up to two-and-a-half months.

The West Australian

newspaper ran a story today claiming that the Fair Work Ombudsman has launched a probe into Oka Motor Company - in which Vell Paari is listed as a director - over the allegations.

NONE The paper also said Vell Paari ( right ) - the son of long-serving former MIC president S Samy Vellu - had "conceded" that his Perth-based company owed workers weeks in outstanding wages.

It is understood that the workers lodged a claim with the Australian Taxation office for unpaid superannuation and also filed a complaint with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

The West Australian said Vell Paari, when contacted in Malaysia, had said that there was a dispute about the size and number of outstanding payments to workers and creditors, but stressed that up to 60 percent of the amount due had already been paid, with the balance to be paid tomorrow.

He said he had to wait for the completion of an audit on the issue before it could be settled, adding that he was not responsible for the unpaid wages.

Vell Paari reportedly said that despite being Oka chairperson and a major shareholder, he spent most of his time in Kuala Lumpur, did not know about the company's daily operations and blamed the local managers for the problems, The West Australian said.

The paper added that Vell Paari had decided to temporarily stop work at the workshop, which specialises in all-terrain trucks, so that he could "clean up the company".

‘Millions of dollars siphoned’

Meanwhile, Vell Paari told Malaysiakini that he has hired international auditing firm KPMG to conduct a forensic audit on the Oka Motor’s finances and to protect the company’s intellectual property.

“I don’t have an Australian working visa, so I appointed two persons to look into the running of the company - a chief executive officer (CEO) and a chief financial officer (CFO) .

“Six weeks ago, I received an email from one of the staff that their salaries were not paid... I suspected irregularities as we had money from sales, but millions have been siphoned out of the country into a private account,” he said.

According to Vell Paari, Oka’s CFO Tom Ksserkas had confessed to misappropriating funds to the auditors and that he expects to receive a full report on the matter in the next few days.

“The company’s intellectual property in the form of manuals were also found to be missing and that alone is worth AU$25 million,” he said.

Vell Paari added that he had to fork out AU$92,000 (RM286,381), which would be used to settle the employees’ salaries.

He also said the CEO, Arthur Gold, resigned soon after the forensics audit was commissioned.

Auditors revealed that only two years of files were available and files from previous years were missing, said Vell Paari, adding that he would be lodging a police report on the matter soon.

“I have also decided that once we clear everything, I am closing down the manufacturing plant and moving it to Malaysia and to export out of Malaysia instead of Australia.... can’t run anything overseas by remote control,” he said.

Additional reporting by S Pathmawathy