The Kuala Lumpur branch committee of the National Union of Bank Employees (Nube) has been accused of tampering with the minutes of its meeting last September on the planning of its now controversial Dec 29 annual dinner.

Nube general secretary J Solomon had presented at the unions national exco meeting yesterday a copy of the minutes which had been allegedly tampered with.

Branch members say the tampering was a clear attempt by the KL branch secretary to cover-up after failing to endorse the budget for the dinner.

The annual dinner became controversial as the branch suffered a loss of about RM97,000 in organising it. The lavish eight-course dinner cum show at the posh Sunway Pyramid Convention Centre attracted only 400 guests although tickets had been printed for 1,200.

However, the NUBE national exco decided yesterday - despite having two sets of minutes for the KL branch committee Sept meeting - not to probe any further and accepted the explanation of the KL branch committee.

The exco voted 14 to10 against investigating alleged misuse of funds by the KL Nube branch in organising the dinner.

Confident of outcome

A council member who attended the meeting told malaysiakini today those who wanted an investigation to be initiated were shocked when Nube president Johar Sulaiman put the matter to a vote.

"This is very unusual. I've noticed that after Solomon was ousted by a vote of no-confidence last July, the president has regularly dealt with issues by putting them to a vote, he said. Solomon was reinstated in November.

"In this case, we have a disciplinary committee which should by right be directed to investigate the dinner controversy immediately since Solomon submitted his findings on the matter before the meeting.

"His findings were based on members' complaints and apparent discrepancies in documents and records," said the council member.

He said a majority of the Nube national exco members were aligned to Johar and the president preferred the voting process when dealing with issues as he could be confident of the outcome.

Rule 9(10) of the Nube constitution prohibits a branch treasurer from spending more than RM100 without the branch committee's approval, and the committee from spending more than RM500 without members approval.

Batik attire

KL Nube members have reacted angrily to the national exco's decision claiming that it totally ignored their complaints and covered-up the dinner issue.

A branch member who requested anonymity said the union had also asked members to pay a levy last year.

"About eight months ago, the union asked us to pay a levy because it claimed it had no money. It managed to collect about RM4.7million Where is the levy money now?

"If the exco doesnt investigate the misuse of funds over the dinner issue, then we want our levy money back," said the member. The KL branch has about 14,000 members.

"Where did the national exco get the power to override the deficit of RM97,000 by the KL branch? If the national exco can abuse its power blatantly like this, other branches may follow suit," added the member.

Another Nube member claimed money was also spent to provide long-sleeved batik attire for the KL branch committee members who attended the dinner.

We are mad about this whole thing because our money was not only used for a lavish dinner in a posh hotel, but we also had to foot the bill for the batik clothes worn by the branch committee members which cost more than RM200 each, he said.