KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has moved in on the Maju Institute for Education Development (MIED) and its officers are expected to camp at its office here until the end of the week to get answers to some RM4 million missing from the institute’s coffers.

They are probing allegations that the sum, paid out by MIED as advances to MIED Capital Sdn Bhd, a special purpose vehicle formed to manage MIED, was routed to two unrelated companies after MIED Capital reimbursed the money to MIED.

MACC officers, who have been at the MIED office located at the MIC headquarters over the past two days, are also looking into whether a former key MIED employee and her husband owned the two companies.

They have seized documents and questioned several staff.

Sources said more staff involved in the financial paper trail would have their statements recorded, as well as the former key employee and two senior MIC leaders who were until recently co-signatories for payments.

In confirming the MACC raid, MIED founding member Tan Sri K.S. Nijhar told The Malay Mail yesterday that the MIED management was giving its full co-operation to the officers, and was intent on bringing those responsible to book.

Billion-ringgit MIED, the MIC’s education arm, is also being investigated by the Companies Commission of  Malaysia (CCM) for violating eight sections under the Companies Act 1965.

Nijhar, in a text message to all nine MIED trustees, informed them that under the Act "all trustees are collectively and individually responsible and liable for these offences, unless otherwise proven".

"Hence, compounds and/or prosecutions and/or fines may be imposed on MIED and/ or on individual trustees," he said, adding that this also applied to the 30-odd members who also "have fiduciary duties and not merely proprietary duties as in other types of companies".

Nijhar warned: "If this matter is not resolved satisfactorily internally, it will have serious consequences for those holding posts in companies or in the government."

The CCM recorded a statement from former MIED chief executive and financial officer P. Chitrakala Vasu last
Wednesday and two days later, former MIC Youth chief S. Vigneswaran gave his account.

Vigneswaran has launched an unprecedented derivative action against the MIED board of trustees under Section 181 of the Companies Act.

On Monday, The Malay Mail reported that a Commissioner for Oaths had been implicated in the alleged backdating of the annual accounts of the MIED.

He is alleged to have attested that MIED chairman and MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu signed two statutory declarations on the MIED financial statements for 2004 and 2005 before him on Oct 15, 2008, and again on Dec 17 the same year.

The commissioner is said to have admitted to the MACC, which was acting on a report by Chitrakala, that Samy Vellu did not allegedly endorse the statutory declaration in his presence.

Chitrakala had lodged several reports with the MACC and police over alleged mismanagement and fraud in MIED last year.

MIED, in return, also lodged police reports against her over alleged "missing" money and abuse in MIED.

The MIED had received millions in donations from MIC members, the Indian community, and the government to support the MIC’s education ventures.

MIED owns the RM1 billion Asian Institute of Medicine, Science and Technology (AIMST) in Kedah, for which the construction cost ballooned, by one account, from RM150 million to RM500 million.

The government had given RM300 million in grants for its construction but MIED still owes Bank Pembangunan about RM230 million in loans.