The 28,000-strong National Union of Bank Employees (NUBE) is demanding an urgent revamp in the Human Resources Ministry, which it blames for the union's protracted leadership battle and administrative impasse.

On Wednesday, minister Dr Fong Chan Onn said he will push for amendments to the Trade Unions Act 1959 granting additional powers to the Director-General of Trade Unions (DGTU) in a pre-emptive move to avoid problems similar to those faced by NUBE, both in and out of court.

NUBE, with an estimated funds and assets of RM20 million, has been mired in a leadership struggle over the last three years and faced with a host of alleged financial mismanagement running into millions of ringgit. None has been resolved to date.

Abdul Jalil Abdul Hamid, who heads one of the two rival groups in the embattled union, said Fong should first embark on an immediate housekeeping exercise before citing the NUBE crisis as an excuse for amending the Act.

"Since 2001, there has been three different secretaries-general and three different DGTU, and yet they have all failed to resolve the crisis," he told malaysiakini .

Blaming the tools

Abdul Jalil cited an old saying - 'a bad workman always blames his tools' - to refute Fong's claim, made at a weekly post-cabinet press conference, that only an amendment to the Act would resolve the union's long-standing dispute.

"We are now confident that the ministry deliberately escalated the NUBE dispute in order to claim that the DGTU required more powers (of intervention)."

Yesterday's Malay Mail quoted the minister as saying that the NUBE crisis had exposed weaknesses in the system, thus the need for an amendment that will allow the DGTU to directly intervene and resolve disputes, currently done through a union's internal mechanism.

Fong, citing the unwillingness of both NUBE factions to reach a compromise, said he would also seek the views of the Malaysian Trades Union Congress - which has recorded strong objections to the proposal - and the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF).

MEF officials could not be reached for immediate comments.

Last week, the High Court ruled that the DGTU was not empowered to call for or conduct a fresh poll, which is the only thing that both factions have agreed on so far.

Abdul Jalil also listed the unresolved cases on alleged misappropriation of union funds amounting to millions of ringgit.

One was the reported loss of RM1.3 million to BBMB Securities in a contra trading between 1994 and 1996.

Explanations needed

"Despite reporting it to the DGTU, nothing happened. Can the minister explain why his officer failed to investigate the losses? asked Abdul Jalil.

Citing a case in 1998, he said the union was sued by Mayban Securities after incurring losses amounting to RM23 million, also in contra trading.

"We lodged a report with the DGTU and the police, but we've not heard anything from either party till now."

He said NUBE also lost RM9 million due to the mismanagement of a property development project it had undertaken, the Ecopark and Country Resort.

"A police report was lodged but nothing was done. Can Fong explain all these failed investigations?

"Can he explain or justify the actions of his officers with regards to the source of the ongoing dispute to determine the legitimate exco?" he asked, referring to the removal of general secretary J Solomon which sparked off the crisis in late 2001.