The National Union of Bank Employees (NUBE) exco should have seen details of a contract to renovate its training centre in Port Dickson, Negri Sembilan, said its sacked president Abdul Jalil Abdul Hamid.

Countering general secretary J Solomon's comments that the exco had approved the project, he pointed out details had not been tabled for the RM1.9 million contract.

"The general plans to renovate, yes, the exco had agreed to it. But after that, no further details were tabled, such as plans to advertise and announce the tenders, invite quotations, to set up building and finance committees," he said.

He said questions immediately arose in his mind when he saw the four quotations submitted by various contractors.

"One quotation was from a certain 'Anand'. Another quotation was from an 'Ananand.' Furthermore, one quotation cited RM2 million, while another cited more than RM2 million. When I saw these things, I started to question," said Abdul Jalil.

Asked if he had plans to bring in his brother's friend as the selected contractor, he denied the allegation saying: "He was somebody who was only offering his services. There was no quotation (from him)."

This was one of two main issues behind another leadership crisis in NUBE, following a four-year tussle at the top that was finally resolved through the courts. Abdul Jalil was then elected president, but was expelled on July 28.

He has since lodged a police report against the 19-member exco, alleging financial irregularities and abuse of power.

In answer to Solomon's claim that personal grievances had driven his actions, Abdul Jalil said his "only interest is for the truth to come out".

Size of delegation

Abdul Jalil also denied the claim that he had turned against the exco for leaving him out of study trip to Australia and New Zealand in July, saying he did not feel slighted.

However, he maintained his allegation that the proposal had not been tabled to the exco and that "a certain official" had approved a RM40,000 for the trip. He only found out about the trip when an exco member informed him.

Abdul Jalil further questioned as to why the Nube delegation was so large.

"Three or four officers would have been enough ... and they could in turn brief the others about what they had learned. Why did they have to take 10 people?" he asked.

On his alleged lack of enthusiasm for attending Nube courses - cited as a factor for his exclusion - he said this may have been true towards the end of his tenure as president when things "had already turned sour between him and the general secretary".

However, he insisted this "has nothing to do with the issue".

Abdul Jalil, who had been removed as the Penang branch chairperson on July 19, denied that his differences with the branch committee derived from its refusal to accept his brother as a member.

"I did propose my brother when a position became vacant, but accepted it when told that the time was not right."

A month later, on June 15, two names were proposed for committee membership, but Abdul Jalil objected to the admission of more non-Malay members.

"I have heard many complaints that, although Malays make up 70 percent of the union's membership, the branch committees and exco are made up predominantly of non-Malays. This is what I objected to. That's all," he said.

However, he added that the incident may have caused relationships to deteriorate.