“I demand an apology from him, failing which he can expect me to sue him,” Waytha told FMT in response to Kumaresan’s claims on his handling of Mitra funds.
Waytha was in charge of Mitra between 2018 and 2020.
On Wednesday, Kumaresan claimed that under Waytha’s watch, Mitra had underutilised the funds it was given, allegedly spending just RM1.16 million, or 1% of its RM100 million annual funding for 2018, followed by RM58 million or 59% for 2019.
He also claimed that the remainder of the funds from 2019 were brought forward, while allocations utilised that year were used to pay expenses incurred from the previous year.
Waytha today said he was only tasked with overseeing the unit, then known as the Socio-Economic Development of the Indian Community Unit (Sedic), in August 2018 following his appointment as national unity minister on July 16 that year.
Sedic was rebranded as Mitra in December 2018.
Upon taking charge of Sedic, Waytha said he found that the unit’s funds had been abused and that no records of its financials were kept.
He also said the former Sedic director could not be contacted and that many of its staff had resigned.
Waytha said he spent the next three months putting Mitra in order, from hiring a new director-general and staff to revamping the entire disbursement and award system.
The new system ensured transparency as applications had to go through five levels of assessments before approval was granted, he said.
The new grant system took effect in January 2019.
Waytha said while it was true that only RM59.2 million was disbursed in 2019, nearly RM100 million in actual projects was approved.
“For purposes of transparency and to ensure that programmes were conducted effectively, only an initial 50% of the approved sum would be disbursed.
“The remainder would be given in stages pending the submission of progressive reports.
“In the government system, this is called a rollover system. Every other ministry does this, not just my ministry.
“The balance of the money has to be returned to the finance ministry, which would then park the money under the rollover system. It does not mean that the money is wasted,” he said.
Waytha also said throughout his tenure as national unity minister, he had responded to various queries in Parliament on Mitra’s programmes and financials.
“Kumaresan should have checked his facts before making defamatory remarks and insinuations against me.”
Last week, Waytha questioned the apparent lack of transparency over Mitra’s utilisation of its RM100 million annual funding for 2023 under the leadership of Sungai Buloh MP R Ramanan.
This prompted Kumaresan to come to Ramanan’s defence and question Waytha’s track record as Mitra chairman.