Both factions of the embattled National Union of Bank Employees (NUBE) have refuted official claims that several of their branches were raided by the Department of Trade Union Affairs over the last few weeks.

Yesterday, Human Resources Minister Dr Fong Chan Onn reportedly said the officers had to obtain a search warrant after being given the runaround by union branch officials when they sought documents two weeks ago as part of investigations into alleged misuse of funds.

General secretary of one group, J Solomon, said the claims made by the minister was "incorrect" and "irresponsible".

He said the "unclear and misleading statements" were "defamatory and stirred unrest among the 28,000 members and the public".

"At no time did the officers visit the NUBE head office at Jalan Ampang to request to see and/or take away documents," he said.

"The only visit (to the union head office) made by them was in accompanying the external auditors Messrs Zainal & Co to conduct the internal audit (in April)," he added.

Defective warrant

Solomon said a group of eight officers from Shah Alam and Putrajaya had come to the NUBE head office with a search warrant on Monday and not Tuesday as stated by Fong.

"We extended our full cooperation to them despite a defective search warrant where we were not presented with the schedule that specified the articles intended to be searched and/or taken away."

He said they were given the account statements from 2000 onwards as well as the minutes of meetings beginning from 1994 until present.

Despite verbal and written requests for the search schedule, he said there has been no response to date.

"We gave the documents anyway because we did not want to be accused of hiding anything or withholding information. That would be even worse."

Solomon said an officer from the Penang department had made a "courtesy call" to the NUBE branch asking to see the account statements, and was given the same explanation - that the documents were in the headquarters in Kuala Lumpur pending the annual audit exercise.

"The officer did not create any fuss after she was told that the documents would be available for inspection once they are returned to the branch."

In his statement, Fong also named three premises that were supposed to have been raided - in Ampang, Klang and Seremban.

After checking with the Klang branch officials, Solomon said two officers from the Shah Alam department of trade union affairs visited the branch office and were given a similar explanation.

"So, what is the minister talking about here? We don't know why they want the documents now when allegations of financial mismanagement have been on for some time already.

"All we know is that the requests for documents were on Fong's orders," he added.

Some of the nine NUBE branches are controlled by another faction.

Rival faction

Contacted today, NUBE general secretary for the rival faction, Mohd Noor Basir, said there were no official visits by officers to the Seremban branch office two weeks ago.

"A few officers came to our branch on Tuesday and we gave them copies of payment vouchers for the branch. There were no other documents since we no longer operate any account under the NUBE or the headquarters.

"In fact, we are using the branch office for correspondence and administrative purposes only since the feud began," he said.

On Oct 29, the High Court civil appellate division is expected to decide on the judicial review sought by Solomon's group to reverse the director-general of trade union's endorsement of the rival exco line-up.

The NUBE membership became divided over who forms the legitimate leadership ever since Solomon was removed from his post in late 2001, sparking off a protracted legal battle.

The upcoming court ruling will be the first of many obstacles facing both parties.