Red flags raised due to political reasons, says Ramasamy

Former Penang Hindu Endowment Board (PHEB) chairman P Ramasamy is totally not convinced that the internal audit conducted by the present PHEB committee were done without political reasons.

“The audit report into the PHEB has raised some “red flags”, meaning there were problems in the management of the board under my direction.

“It is pretty obvious the move behind the internal audit was political in nature. It was meant to discredit me and those commissioners who contributed much to the development of the PHEB.

“I have no problems with the MACC investigating the “red flags,” he said in a statement.

He also claimed that he had reported an internal audit report to the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission last year.

“Rayer is not even aware that we reported the findings of an internal audit last year to the MACC.”

He said this in response to PHEB chairman PHEB chairman RSN Rayer’s announcement that there were red flags on an internal audit conducted on PHEB which led the latter to lodge a report to the MACC yesterday.

Rayer became PHEB chairman in Sept 2022. Prior to that, Ramasamy helmed the statutory body for 14 years while serving as Deputy Chief Minister II in Penang.

PHEB is the only Hindu endowment board in Malaysia.

Ramasamy also took Rayer to task.

“Rayer can deny that the audit report is not intended as “witch hunt”. I would certainly like the MACC to do a thorough investigation on the issues that have been “red flagged” by the audit report.”

He also pointed that Rayer and Penang exco for housing and environment S Sundararajoo who are currently PHEB commissioners were part of the PHEB under his leadership.

“All major decisions in the PHEB were taken collectively with the consent of the commissioners including Rayer and Sundrajoo.

“Hopefully, these two individuals don’t turn around to say that they were not part of the decision making. The minutes of the Board meetings will indicate those present and the decisions taken.

“I hope Rayer and Sundarajoo have not forgotten their role as commissioners under my chairmanship of the PHEB.”