Email exchanges between Barry Palmer and me.

When I wrote to IPP Barry Palmer, he said that if I believe LCIF has mismanaged fund I may report to him and that he will investigate it.

Soon after the involvement of John Ho on the conversations between Barry and me, Barry ‘found out’ that he had no ‘AUTHORITY’ to investigate.

LCIF Screw up

                                                                By LCIF and LCI

This is part four of my response to John Ho's comments in IPP Barry Palmer's FB page.

"Have you asked IPP about LCIF matching grants; how only 50% of the project funds are granted by LCIF so that there can never be any unused LCIF funds once the project is completed; how LCIF only releases the grants to the DG of the Grant applicant District, as Grant Administrator, so LCIF obviously have no record of releasing funds to KK Host."

Quotable quotes 4 – CC Pung

"Don't judge lest you be judged. The secretary is a volunteer and an elected official with some 40 years of impeccable service as a civil servant. Please give him the benefit of the doubt. He stands corrected, not accused." (Pung Chen Choon)

On hindsight, now with all the information unearthed, it is clear as to why CC Pung defended Francis Chai. Francis Chai (secretary) had given to me in writing that he was coerced to change the minutes by the president Thomas Ho Thau Phin. As such, what ‘benefit of doubt’ is CC Pung talking about?

Lions Club International Foundation and its 4 Star Rating

Here is some information I extracted from the internet on LCIF followed by my comments.

"Fiscal responsibility and transparency are important to LCIF. LCIF continues to ensure that all donated funds are used efficiently to help even more people."

IPP Barry Palmer - Contradictory statements from LCIF and LCKK Host

Good morning Barry. Please click on the links provided to read the full article on my blog.

Below are correspondences between LCIF manager and me and they are self explanatory. 

IPP Barry Palmer - Face Book Discussion (Part 2)

                                                       (Photo Past IP with current IP)
                                                 First IP from Australia and first woman IP

Let us start from the very beginning… a very good place to start.

I reported about misappropriation of funds by the Lions Club of Kota Kinabalu Host (the name the club was known to all members). I wrote to LCIF if they had given grants to LCKK Host and the answer was in the negative.

IPP Barry Palmer - Face Book discussion (Part 1)

International Past President of Lions Club International, IPP Barry Palmer is the only IPP from Australia. He has been my Face Book friend for quite a while.

Here is the beginning of a FB exchange from May 12^th 2019. Let us hope IPP Barry will be able to investigate into this matter and recommend to LCI on what action to take against the culprits who have siphoned off grant money from LCIF meant for the poor.

Quotable quotes (Part 1)

On 12.12.2016 John SF Ho sent a Whats app message to the members of Lions Club of Kota Kinabalu Host as follows:

J Ho: “The onus of proof of any wrong doing is on the accuser. Let Luqman prove KK Host has 3 bank accounts at Alliance Bank. Any legal organization can have as many bank accounts they want.”

Before and after Past Presidents’ Council was formed

                 

Before the Past Presidents Council was formed in 2000 all expenses of entertaining foreign visitors were shared by members of the club. The president of the year will collect funds from members to defray the cost of entertaining foreign visitors.

Lions Club International - My emails and responses

I am baffled by the recent response from Lions Club International to my emails.

 

Here is my 3^rd email to LCI since the de-registration of Lions Club of Kota Kinabalu host.

From: luqman michel [mailto:luqmanm2002@yahoo.co.uk]
Sent: Tuesday, July 24, 2018 6:37 AM
To: Kingsbury, David <David.Kingsbury@lionsclubs.org>; President <president@lionsclubs.org>; District Administration <districtadministration@lionsclubs.org>; Legal <legal@lionsclubs.org>; Finance <Finance@lionsclubs.org>; Lion Magazine <magazine@lionsclubs.org>
Subject: Still awaiting a response

Lions Motto - "We serve" - What does it mean?

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=wolves+among+lions 

These two emails are the last two communication between LCI and me. LCI has categorically told me that they will not communicate with me. 

But then there are many other avenues to seek a solution and to put things right. 

Lions all over the world should learn that they cannot sweep things under the carpet. Clubs should realise that there are Lions including Lions who have been expelled who actually live by the motto"We serve" and they do not follow the crowd.

The following is my last email to LCI and LCI's response. LCI did not address the many questions I had raised in my email posted in my last article and neither have they tried to see the logic in this email - my last email-  to them. 

I will tag other Lions and see if they have any comments.

The onus of proof of 3rd Bank Account is on the accuser - Luqman Michel

Here is a post on FB  on 22.12.2016 which I read to get some information to write to MICPA. 

On 12.12.2016 John SF Ho sent a Whatsapp message to the members of Lions Club of Kota Kinabalu Host as follows:

J Ho: “The onus of proof of any wrong doing is on the accuser. Let Luqman prove KK Host has 3 bank accounts at Alliance Bank. Any legal organization can have as many bank accounts they want.”
J Ho: “The 2 accounts disclosed to ROS are project account and administrative account. These must not be confused with bank accounts. Under project account we can have as many bank accounts as we want. There is nothing mysterious about it.”

End of the road with LCIF

The email in my post yesterday from LCIF was the last email from them. Upon my reminder to LCIF on  8.2.2018 (see last email below) I received an email from LCI Legal. 

I shall hold on to that email from LCI and go back in time and post the emails to some of our local dignitaries so that you may be able to see the sequence of event more clearly.

Meanwhile, here is my response subsequent to the email from LCIF in yesterdays post.

luqman michel <luqmanm2002@yahoo.co.uk>

To:…. (Name removed)

6 Feb at 05:59

Thank you… (name removed),

I do hope Legal will follow up soon.

I have written several emails to them since January 2017*

and they have not responded.

More correspondences to and fro LCIF/ Luqman

For those readers who are new to my blog, please read my post on 13. 2. 2018 and earlier.

Here is another one of my emails to LCIF

From: luqman michel [mailto:luqmanm2002@yahoo.co.uk]
Sent: Thursday, January 25, 2018 3:31 AM
To: name removed @lionsclubs.org>
Subject: Response: LCI contribution/ LCIF Grant

Dear Lion…. ( name removed),

PDG John SF Ho who is the master mind of 3 secret bank accounts in Lions Club of Kota Kinabalu Host (LCKKHOST) is the main culprit.

I have attached the newspaper report and also the response to the newspaper report which is what I am questioning LCIF about.

LCKKHost has said in the newspaper that any excess from monies received from LCI and sister clubs are for club account. Money received from LCIF via our sister clubs are banked in the secret bank accounts.

Money from these accounts have been used to purchase air conditioners for the club as well as payment for renovation expenses.

The club claims that since the money is not from public donations it may be used for administrative expenses. However, even some public donations are banked into the secret bank accounts.

This has been going on for years and I understand that RM2,000 per Past President was paid for purchase of the office lot and the balance was excess from project funds. This is hearsay and I don’t have any evidence. Twenty years ago the past presidents would at the most have been about 20. The balance of more than RM100,000 for the building cost of RM140,000 is said to be from excess funds from projects.

Feel free to ask for any further information you may need. All information you may need is in my blog at: www.myclubexperiences.blogspot.com

The only logical answer to my question would be; regardless of whether the money received is from sister clubs, LCI or LCIF it cannot be used for administrative purposes.

I hope to get a response soon.

 Attachments 1& 2 are newspaper articles (the same article)

Attachment 3 is the clubs response to attachment 1

Attachment 4 is a short write up of monies received from Sister Clubs and LCIF

Kind regards,

Luqman Michel

Here is the immediate response from LCIF

From:  Name removed
Sent: Thursday, January 25, 2018 9:45 AM
To: 'luqman michel' <luqmanm2002@yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: RE: Response: LCI contribution/ LCIF Grant

Lion Luqman,

I’m not certain I can be of much assistance with this situation as there is no reference to an LCIF grant being issued to this club. I will instead forward this to our office in Mumbai and have them take a look.

Name removed

……

On Thursday, 25 January 2018, 23:47:45 GMT+8, Name removed@lionsclubs.org> wrote:

Ignore that last e-mail. The India office would not have any authority over this matter. What country is this taking place in?

Email privacy

Should emails be posted for public viewing?

It is my opinion that emails or letters that are confidential and which contain trade secrets should not be made public.

However, my emails to and from LCI/LCIF and LCKKHost members, I believe, are beneficial to the other Lions Clubs as well as the public. Even many senior Lions are not aware of the many things I have discovered and disseminated through my emails. 

Correspondence to and fro LCIF and me

Here is my response to LCIF. At this point in time I did not know that the grants were from LCIF. LCKKHost had said in the local newspaper that funds were received from LCI. 

From: luqman michel [mailto:luqmanm2002@yahoo.co.uk]
Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2018 1:41 PM
To: @lionsclubs.org>
Subject: Response: LCI contribution

LCIF- Knock and the door will be opened

On 18.1.2018 I wrote an email to LCI and attached the Daily Express article that was the reply from LCKKHost.

When I did not get a response I wrote again on 25/1/2018 and a new door opened.

Here is the email I wrote:

My emails to PDG's and to LCI

The following are a few emails I had sent to PDG's and to LCI since December 2016. If the PDG's or DG or LCI had taken the Bull by the horn matters could have been resolved in a much more amicable way. 

Currently I have initiated emails with LCIF and hope they would be more responsive.

Response to a comment on my post on 27.1.2018

My post on 27.1.2018 was entitled ‘Grants received by Lions Club of Kota Kinabalu Host'.

The comment received is from: Marcia Hong · Friends with Yuji Hatoyama and 2 others

The comment posted is: 

Grants received by Lions Club of Kota Kinabalu Host

On January 12^th 2018 Francis Liew had responded to the newspaper report on “Club gets show cause from RoS” dated 11.1.2018.One of his statements is as follows:

The funds for our Rural Water Projects and the Hostel for needy students come from our joint project partners, an overseas Lions Club and from Lions Club International.

“For all these projects, all funds shortages or excesses are for the account of our club” he (Francis Liew) said.