Shop owners cry foul over management’s move

The Star 21/10/2004 By R.S.N. Murali

OWNERS of shop lots at the Terminal One shopping complex in Seremban are up in arms over the management’s decision to remove Owner’s Committee Council (OCC) representative David Lai as a signatory of the shopping complex’s sinking fund bank account.

OCC spokesman Kenny Lim said Lai’s removal as their representative was made without their knowledge and the bank account had been altered in favour of the management.

Previously, the bank account for the fund had two signatories, one from the management and the other represented by OCC members.

“Don't they realise that the 100-odd members of OCC are the ones contributing to the fund. We pay a fee of 10 sen per square feet every month to the fund and now they have taken away our privilege as a signatory,” said Lim.

The fund was jointly set up in 1998 by the management of the complex, Panji Timor, and OCC when Panji Timor was saddled with financial constraints.

The fund was used for maintenance expenses such as air-conditioner malfunctions, roof, water tanks and electric cable repairs and even to rectify defects in the main building’s structure.

Lim said the fund was subsequently used to operate the complex.

“We had to fork out RM260,000 monthly from the fund to manage the complex. Now it seems that our efforts are not appreciated by the management,” he lamented.

He added that the fund, which was efficiently managed by the OCC, was also utilised to bail out the management from bad debts of about RM3mil five years ago.

He said drastic changes were made to turn the complex into a prime shopping complex in Seremban since OCC took over the daily operations.

”It is our hard-earned money which the management used to run the complex but now our contributions for all these years had just gone in thin air just because Panji Timor has now a new chief executive director,” he said.

Lim said OCC members were now concerned over the possibility that money from the fund could be misappropriated.

“Look around the complex, there is not a single preparation to organise events for the coming Hari Raya and Deepavali celebrations not like in the past when we were overseeing the fund,” he said.

Lim said the OCC had met Temiang State assemblyman Datuk Lee Yuen Fong to find a solution to the problem before mismanagement turned Terminal One into a deserted shopping complex.