PRIME Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob has been urged to stay away from the Malaysian Trades Union Congress’s (MTUC) Triennial Delegates Conference (TDC) as it is illegally convened.
This is following news that the MTUC will be going ahead with its conference on July 2-3, 2022 with the Prime Minister set to be the guest of honour.
MTUC secretary-general Kamarul Baharin Mansor said yesterday (June 30) the TDC’s dates of July 2–3 are approved by the majority of delegates at the congress’ general meeting on March 20.
On this matter MTUC general council member A. Sivananthan said that the ROS should stop condoning the numerous Constitutional violations by the current leadership of MTUC.
“The TDC is illegally scheduled by the Office Bearers contravention to the Constitution as the TDC shall be only convened during the period of October to December of the year, in which it is due,” he said.
“In addition, the dates, place and agenda of the TDC was not decided by the General Council – both of which are violations of Clause 7 Rule 6(7).”
Sivananthan further alleged that the delegates are deprived of the MTUC’s Triennial Report and audited statement of accounts for the years 2020, 2021 and 2022, which is a violation of Clause 7 Rule 6 (8).
He claimed that the MTUC secretary-general had failed to send the complete agenda to the affiliates within the 14 days before the Conference – a violation of Clause 7 Rule 6 (13).
“In Appendix E, under the Standing Orders of TDC, the Secretary General shall present the General Council’s Report which shall be given precedence over all other business of the Conference,” he said.
“But no such report was presented to the General Council prior to the TDC. The previous term General Council Report is also not presented as directed by the ROS.”
With regard to MTUC’s financial matters, Sivananthan said that further violations have been committed by the current leadership of MTUC in which the Financial Secretary did not present the Statement of Accounts at every quarter’s proceeding of the General Council meeting, which is a violation of Clause 10(8).
“The General Council neither received any annual audited statement of accounts of MTUC for the years 2020, 2021 and 2022, nor were these presented to the Unions to be debated, thus violating Clause 11,” he remarked.
“The General Secretaries of the affiliated Unions were also not given the audited statements for the years 2020, 2021 and 2022 prior to the scheduled TDC by the MTUC leadership which is a violation of Clause 10 Rule 13 (1).
“The MTUC leadership failed to send the audited statement of accounts to each affiliated Union not less than 14 days before each TDC – a violation of Clause 10 Rule 13 (1).”
Meanwhile, Sivananthan pointed out that the Financial Secretary had failed to prepare the Annual Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure, which is a violation of Clause 10 (11).
“All disbursements shall be made in accordance with the approved Estimates of Expenditure and properly charged in the MTUC accounts under the proper headings and sub-headings of estimates approved by the Delegates Conference, but this was not carried out,” he commented, adding that this was a violation of Clause 10(10).
“The Audited financial report for 2017, 2018 and 2019 was also certified by unauthorised Principal Office Bearers, which is tantamount to fraudulent representation.
“The Fixed Assets and the Fixed Deposit are not reflected in the Balance Sheet, which is a misrepresentation of the financial statement.”
Sivananthan noted that all the actions he had mentioned were carried out without the approval of the ROS unlike during the previous term when the ROS had directed that only the election be held due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The many violations by the MTUC leadership give the impression that the election of the Principal Officer Bearers has taken precedence over other matters,” he commented.
“Even the scheduled attendance and the address of the PM at this conference was not tabled at any of the General Council meetings.
“Therefore, it is our opinion that the TDC must be deferred otherwise the PM would not only be attending an illegal conference but he would also be seen as condoning the violations of MTUC’s Constitution by its current leadership.” – July 1, 2022
