Selling NLFCS’ assets draws flak

An ad-hoc committee questions the sale, apart from alleging that the cooperative's long-serving directors are practicing nepotism.

KUALA LUMPUR: An ad-hoc committee has questioned the logic behind the National Land Finance Cooperative Society’s (NLFCS) decision to sell its assets.

Speaking at a press conference in Brickfields here, Save NLFCS action committee adviser S Turaisingham said: “No hospital makes a loss and yet Apollo TTDI Medical Centre in Taman Tun Dr Ismail was sold for RM7 million.”

“It has been constantly sustaining RM12 million in losses since NLFCS owned it,” he added.

He also listed other NLFCS subsidiaries that were either sold or closed. Among them were the Kota Tinggi Steel Mill, a hospital in Taiping and Mamtaj Travel Agency.

Meanwhile, S Gopalakrishnan, whose father is a NLFCS member, questioned how the cooperative was paying dividends at 6% per annum and at the same time selling its subsidiaries.

“Is the 6% from profits or from the sale of assets?” he asked.

On a similar note, NLFCS member K Guna queried why the cooperative’s directors were maintained for nearly five decades.

“This has caused the cooperative to practice nepotism. Subsidiaries are being run by immediate family members of the directors,” he said, citing the Appolo Medical centre as an example.

He claimed that NLFCS chairman KR Somasundram’s son, a heart specialist, was a director at Appolo.

In view of this, Thuraisingham urged the Cooperatives Commission of Malaysia to take immediate action against NLFCS.

“We want CCM to suspend the board of directors and appoint an administrator to save the legacy of VT Sambanthan,” he said.

The ad-hoc committee, however, has yet to lodge any police reports against the pioneer cooperative society set up for the Indians.

NLFCS was formed in 1960 under the patronage of then MIC president, Sambanthan to allow land ownership by the Indians. As of 2009, it had 49,682 members. - FMT