Friday, November 26, 2021

DBKL Officers Cooperative Belly-up

The Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) officers’ cooperative is facing a liquidity crisis. Unproductive investments made by the board management has left its coffers empty, leaving retired members who want to withdraw their funds in the lurch.

The matter only came to light after several senior DBKL employees, who retired last year, went to the cooperative office in Cheras to apply to withdraw their funds, only to be told that it was not possible as there was no money. Upon further checks, officers who had retired in 2018 were also yet to get their monies.

Cooperative members have since set up a group to find more details about the missing funds because of a lack of information from the management board. The cooperative had not held its annual general meeting for several years, ostensibly because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Failed investments - Former cooperative chairman who helmed KPPDBKL from 2008 to 2009, claimed there was RM5mil in the cooperative coffers when he was in charge. Business was good then but later, the cooperative invested in housing projects in Kajang, and purchased land in Selangor and shoplots in Kuala Lumpur.

Several members intended to lodge a report with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC). Reports have already been lodged with the Cooperative Commission of Malaysia (SKM). Members want the authorities to investigate the committee members responsible for managing the cooperative funds.

Liquidity crisis - The ooperative which has 1,015 members, was facing liquidity constraints that made it difficult for it to meet financial obligations. Due to several past investments that did not bring in any profit or revenue, it has been difficult for the cooperative to meet its running costs. Due diligence was carried out to evaluate the assets and liabilities and certain activities sustaining on bank loans were not viable. Payments have to be delayed until we settle cash flow issues.

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