MNCF to face music over spending

Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin is unhappy with the way the Malaysian National Cycling Federation (MNCF) have handled their accounts.

PUTRAJAYA: Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin is on the verge of suspending the Malaysian National Cycling Federation (MNCF).

Khairy, who has voiced his dissatisfaction with MNCF over the past few months, is unhappy with the annual accounts of the road programme expenditure after receiving a report of MNCF’s accounts from his ministry’s chief auditor Rokiah Sahat.

“I gave her two days to go through the accounts and when I received her report on Jan 29, I found weaknesses in the way they managed their finances,” said Khairy at his office here on Wednesday.

“I am not happy with the way they handle their accounts as there are some questionable practices.”

Khairy did not disclose what the “questionable practices” were.

His ministry gave MNCF RM2.45mil last year to use for Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL), Jelajah Malaysia and the national road circuits.

“RM1.5mil was allocated for LTdL and the remaining RM700,000 for Jelajah Malaysia and also for the road circuits,” said Khairy.

MNCF received RM1.81mil and RM2.95mil respectively from the ministry in 2011 and 2012.

The Federation came under fire after the failure of road cyclists to win a single gold medal in the Myanmar SEA Games in December.

It was the fourth consecutive time Malaysian road cyclists failed to land a gold in the biennial Games.

Last month, Khairy ordered MNCF to submit their annual accounts for an audit after the association rejected having a joint training programme with the National Sports Council (NSC). The Federation opted instead to run the road programme on their own.

Khairy said that to be fair to MNCF he would ask his ministry’s secretary-general Datuk Jamil Salleh, Sports Commissioner Ahmad Shapawi Ismail and the NSC director-general Datuk Seri Zolkples Embong to go through the accounts again.

“If I still find the accounts haywire, I will submit the report to the MACC (Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission),” said Khairy.

“I will also suspend MNCF. All sports associations must be prudent with the money given to them by the government,” said Khairy.