More Dirt from Synod
As the dust settles, more details emerged from the just completed Synod that points to highly suspicious business of the highest order in the Diocese.
1. RM600,000 renovation of the Bishop’s lodge
Chris Chiew from St. Patrick’s Church, who also headed the engineering firm that supervised the renovation work, rose to confirm the renovation cost at RM600,000. He said he had all the files and documents to show and anyone who wanted to see the proofs could approach him. Highly curious why the engineer has to come out and defend the Bishop so valiantly. Yes, they are dive buddies and Chiew oversees a lot of the Diocese’s construction projects, including the controversial Kokol Prayer Summit which is a project probed by the Advisory Committee. Can’t blame the delegates for being skeptical when the Bishop’s close ally came to the defense.
I have further questions on the renovation. What does RM600,000 include? Likely the structural work only as Chiew is an engineer. What about the furnishing and fittings? How much did that cost? Can we summon Bishop’s former PA and personal shopper Esther Liew to testify? Esther and Datin Mary Vun made trips to KL and Thailand to bring home containers of furnitures. Can the Bishop give us the figures for furniture and fittings please? More importantly who were in the committee to oversee the renovation? What was the budget set by the Standing Committee?
RM600,000 = 1 year of offering+tithes from Church of the Good Shepherd (in 2006)
RM600,000 = 1 year of offering+tithes from Christ Church Likas (in 2006)
Let’s not forget in the same year, Philip Lo spent RM300,000 to renovate rectory II of Christ Church which he occupied for a few months before moving into the Deanery. In total, the Diocese spent RM900,000 on renovation in 2006, and we haven’t figured out the furnishing and fitting cost yet. That’s 40% of the Diocesan assessments (RM2.2 million) in 2006. Can you imagine 40% of what the whole Diocese collected in 2006 went into renovating houses for two families? Is this good stewardship of God’s money?
2. RM850,000 Sipitang land
Diocesan Secretary, Paul Liew noted he was tasked by the Standing Committee to negotiate the purchase of this land. Liew, who is also professional valuer, valued the land at RM650,000 and offered the same to the seller. Liew told the Synod he did not know how or why the Diocese eventually concluded the purchase at RM850,000. Liew wanted this fact to be noted and minuted. The Bishop then clarified there was a miscommunication with Liew.
WOW! A miscommunication that cost the Diocese RM200,000 more! Why did the Bishop choose to buy it at RM200,000 premium of what was negotiated? Why did the Bishop bypassed Paul Liew who was appointed for negotiation and valuation? Can you blame the members from suspecting the Bishop of collusion and embezzlement?
3. Management Letter from the Auditor
Remember the 3rd paragraph from the Auditor’s report above? The report included a management letter. Several delegates asked for the letter as it would highlight the exact areas where the accounts are problematic. Treasurer Paul Chong declined to produce the letter saying it was only meant for the Standing Committee. The Synod is the HIGHEST governing body of the Diocese. Amongst the Synod’s duties is to approve the accounts and budget. The Standing Committee is elected to carry out the wishes of the Synod, therefore the Standing Committee is subservient to the Synod, not the other way round. The Synod has every right to know why the auditor find the accounts so troubling.
Chong finally relented, but he would only provide the letter to Stephanie Chin, treasurer of Church of Good Shepherd, who raised the question. Such secretive behaviours rouse further distrust towards the Bishop, his inner circles, and top leadership.
4. An Abusive Chancellor
The Church of Christ the King, a relatively young and small church in KK, stunned the floor with their passionate opposition to the 2nd resolution. Both wardens, Chin Chiong Fah & Chong Yun Choi, relatively new to the Synod crossed swords with the Chancellor. We need more delegates like them who would speak out of their convictions not fearing what others think. When Chin argued the clergy should be excluded from voting the 2nd resolution, Stephen Foo barked down on Chin, “Are you challenging the constitution?” The Chancellor may not have read his job description. Under the constitution, the Chancellor is the legal adviser for the Bishop and Diocese. An adviser speaks when he/she is sought for advise; and adviser should be neutral. It is unbecoming of Stephen Foo to be aggressive towards any delegate during a debate. Where was the Chancellor when the Synod failed to obey the constitution in serving notice to the parishes, preparing the agenda, and submitting the resolutions?
Dear Synod delegates, I appeal to you to write a letter to the House of Bishop in light of the coverups and irregularities you witnessed at the Synod. You were denied access to the management letter. You were denied sufficient time to consider the resolutions, which should have been published 6 weeks prior to the Synod. Instead, they ambushed you for a vote of confidence at the end of a Synod. You were denied the opportunity to consult, weight and discuss the resolutions with your parish.
Please arise and let the voice of righteousness be heard. Don’t let James Chhoa do all the work. There are 98 of you, and you only need a handful of signatures from the delegates to send a letter to the House of Bishops.
Evil triumph when good men do nothing.
The Truth 
The shit has hit the fan and the smell is everywhere. The renovation of the Bishop lodge is a foregone conclusion. Is there any accounting of the fittings and furnishing? If so how much? The Diocese paid for 600 thousand in renovation alone not counting the fittings and furnishing, old structure, and the land for the house. It must be a big mansion. Even the chief executive of many big companies did not stay in such a mansion.
Someone should have raise the issue that the notice of meeting and the agenda did not satisfy the minimum period laid down in the Constitution, and therefore had invalidated the Synod meeting. Where is the Chancellor on this issue?
Why is Paul Chong so afraid that members of the Synod see the auditor’s letter. He must be hiding a lot of skeletons in the closet. He had been seen burning midnight oil at the Diocesan office before PAC arrived. Now it becomes clearer why he is afraid. There is always a high mountain. I challenge Paul Chong to circulate the letter to the delegates or we will get MACC to unearth it and all the skeletons he is hiding. It is BAV’s Modus Operandi ( standard practice) to appoint someone else to negotiate a deal and then bypass him. The same happened in the renovation/ construction at Good Samaritan Church as highlighted by another member.
Same old tricks. Miscommunication is a lame excuse in the purchase of Sipitang land. Someone is richer by 200 thousand. It is crystal clear. As to who, your guess is as good as mine. It is corruption at the highest office. Anyone with any dignity will have resigned. Apparently, we have someone who do not know what shame means.
Blogmaster,if you are given the management letter please publish it out for us to see.Why so secretive if there is nothing to hide? I agree,some of those in the Synod should inform the HOB about what is going on.Don’t give AV any face now,strike when the iron is hot!
It really demonstrated that there Is no transparency in the management of DOS. Why treasurer of DOS so secretive and why the chancellor behave like this. Its not helpful at all. They are so defensive! There Is little coperation! So much pride!
I call upon the intercessors to discern and pray. Please do not think that the congregation are the ones making trouble and needs deliverance.. The clergy and church workers need deliverance too. They need to be humble and show genuine love. Please do a spiritual checkup.
It is very diappointing and frustrating. How can the people grow spiritually? Do you all care about your congregation instead of asking police to suppress their voices?
Very very sad indeed, now we have religious + spiritual moral hypocites who cheat,lie & systematically plunder ADOS & ASC. ADOS & ASC are wearing down with massive mismanagement & corruption with lies plus we have Assistant Bishops & Clergies colluding with the Chief. These so called servants of God are unwilling or unable to address issues raised by concern parishioners because they have grown fat and very comfortable with all the goodies pampered by the Chief.
Over the last 7 years, much of the immense wealth / assets generated by our low profile, productive past Bishops have been systematically looted & plundered. ( can you believe a miscommunication as claimed by the Chief had cost ADOS to over paid RM 200,000.00 ??? ).
The last Synod had not blinded our eyes sight with Crocodile tears & I urge all concern God fearing Anglicans not to fall into complacency. It is time to wake up and walk the talk. Do not let the crocodile put a lid to all issues raised & we must finish the war by bringing back glory & dignity to all Anglicans for the Glory of God.
The present Chief & two of his Assistants & Clergies has let Anglicans down & a subject of jokes in all the cities & towns throughout South East Asia.
F.T Lau.
St.Patrick – Tawau.
I wonder if AV knows the consequences of ignoring the above purposely; especially the auditor’s management letter.
Does he know that we may go to the extent of uploading this letter to the facebook and let the world to see how dirty is his work? One way to get rid of the work of the evil ones is to expose them to the light.
By doing so, at least others can pray for us; those who are seeking for righteousness and justice for the church of God.
Paul Liew valued the Sipitang land at 650,000 ringgit and how come 850,000 came out? How come Paul Liew did not know as he was the negotiator and valuer? Why did AV by pass him? He gave the answer as miscommunication which we don’t accept.I also heard there is no access road to the land.Who pocketed the extra RM200,000? Isn’t it logical to negotiate a price as low as possible when buying properties for the church? How come the price was up and now down,way higher than the valued price! We could not help there was something fishy here! Need for MACC to find out.
Bishop’s Lodge was renovated or rebuilt? RM600,000 for renovations,what type of materials used? Imported ones?
So the allies of BAV use strongman tactics to bully the delegates from the laity, so that they will desist in asking more questions! This high level of oppression has to stop. David has to arise against Goliath. Let us ensure that the bullies and the unrighteous are removed from positions of power. Now it is very clear from this blog as to who the so-called Leviathan spirit is ACTUALLY indwelling – and it is definitely not in the bloggers.
To Confronting the Toxic Leader
I agree with you. The Leviathan spirit has attacked and influence our DOS and ASC leaders. Many of them are unaware that they are infected and there are also disease carriers around and will continue to spread it. They need to be delivered of this spirit.
The church intercessors need to wake up and pray against the influence of this Leviathan spirit. Please aim your target correctly. I hope they can discern who in the DOS have these spirit. In Job 41:34b ” it is KING over all that are PROUD.” Who in DOS has manifested SUPER PROUD behaviour ?
Can anyone tell me why all these people are protecting AV? They are not helpful in solving the crisis but tend to cover it!
Hi! David, Do you know why these people protect BAV ? – They are all in the same boat, so don’t rock the boat or else; they will all be drowned. You can enjoy all the nice things that the captain will hand out. Would you like to come on board? Enjoying all the nice things through their plundering of the loyal and innocents. Known as Suckers?
David & Peter,
Why are these people protecting BAV?
Apart from the 2 reasons given already by Peter,I would like to add another reason.
They are those who are still dreaming, ignorant and do not know what has already happened to the church and all its fund or rather they chose not to know so as not to upset BAV and his cohorts.They are those who do not read the blogs and stuck true to their beliefs that the bishop can do not wrong as he is chosen by the Almighty.
As mentioned somewhere here, this situation of not knowing what is going on has led certain families to face-off with each other, friends to argue between themselves, husbands and wives to have different allegiances, church going members to distrust each others and many others to be ashamed of being a member of the Anglican church.
David
There are 2 reasons why these Peoples are protecting AV & tend to cover it.
1 . AV is their BOSS , Esp. those Clergymen & Diocesan staffs whose fate is decide by AV.
2. They are partners of Malpractice , misuse of fund , Corruption & Theft. when certain amount is Misuse , not all the funds goes to one ‘s pocket , they normally shared among themselves & most of the cases need the team work & co operation of each other for a corruption to happen.
Kenneth Chia & David, pls note :
1. Don’t forget He is not only BOSS of the Clergymen, but their spouses as well (quite a no. of the wives work in the acadamy – Vision school, St. Patrick Kinder..apart from those husband & wife team working together in the church office.).
2. They are buddies, brothers & sisters-in-CRIME.
Whers is the HOLINESS they have been preaching all along?????
As far as i know cabinet ministers in Scandinavian countries (Sweden, Denmark, Finland) live in apartments. According to ranks, each is entitled housing by sq ft. If he needs a bigger sq feet cos of the size of his family, he pays for the difference.
Europe is moving towards a more egalitarian society. With the Eurozone crisis, social democrats are gaining influence. people are questioning capitalism and consumerism and searching for meaning in life.
Our Christian doctrine is the answer cos Christ prioritises the poor. With environmental concerns, the choice is simplicity, cutting down on waste and going for basic necessities.
It looks like the anglican leadership is out of touch with present reality.
Have to be careful talking about corruptions even in church,can’t believe it!
With our past bishops,they seldom bought or sold properties at such great speed like AV.As I see it our church is having so many projects one after another and to see most of the money going into projects or renovations but like the auditor said,no guidelines or disclosure of the progress of projects..While money spent like nobody’s business.our poor brothers and sisters in Christ are crying out for financial help of their church.Don’t these people who are involved with the projects have any guilty feeling drying up our bank accounts while the poor go unnoticed?
BAV, you may have won this round using strong-arm tactics at this Synod but do you ever realize what you have done made many to know you better as a non-Christlike bishop ? Speaking to many last Sunday, even those who were previously not interested or familiar with the Diocesan management have now reached a bad opinion of you. Some of the passive “See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak on evil” Anglicans even said you have caught the Malaysian political disease of rigging elections. Based on the voting percentages, I would be worried to know that the votes cast by most urban churches are against you. You being one who likes to dwell in numbers but never break them down should do so now because they are not encouraging if you nett out the 50 clergy and the robotic clones your parish priests have sent to represent at the Synod. The lynch mob is still out there and growing in numbers and perhaps getting more organized. This is what happens when there is oppression in any society even for a church.
dear blogger
subject: sipitang land
I wish to point out that you may be wrong to assume that RM200,000 has been lost. Eventhough professional valuers value the land at RM650,000, the seller may not want to sell at that price. If the buyer thinks that the asking price of RM850,000 is reasonable, and the buyer is in urgent need of the land, then the transaction price can be higher than the valued price.
I had a piece of land in sandakan and there was a buyer wanting to buy it. I got a valuer’s report and the land was valued at RM20,000 an acre. But I will not sell it at RM20,000, so I asked for RM30,000 an acre. The buyer bought it at RM30,000/acre.
cam: You share a valid point. Still it does not explain why while Paul Liew was assigned by the Standing Committee to negotiate with the seller, the deal was concluded behind Paul’s back without his knowledge. Why did the Bishop bypassed Paul and struck a deal directly with the seller? This land was purchased with church funds. Transparency is paramount. If it where the Bishop was buying something for himself with his personal money, nobody would query.
cam, What is the urgency for buying a vacant land in Sipitang? Sipitang is not short of vacant land and if you care to look around there are plenty of land that, given the price, many owners will sell. The valuer had fixed the value at 650,000.00 and the Bishop had first appointed him to negotiate, then he bypass him to offer 200,000 (23%) more. Don’t you smell a rat? I can smell it from a mile away, can you not?
From what I heard,if true,bishop offered that price to the seller!! I do smell a rat! Why should the bishop always ‘campur tangan’ with everything regarding the church’s buy and sell? If a person is given a task to do the job,let him do it instead of going from the back door to close a deal without that person knowing it just like the member of Good Sam said . This bishop will not change,he has fooled the members long enough and from what happened at the Synod,what ever he does now to regain his credibility will be of no use and will not gain the confidence of the members back.
Correction 2nd resolution: Chong Yun Choi of Christ the King is pro to the resolution. He was one of them to ask the floor to give full support to BAV.
You are willing to pay RM200,000 premium if you are a property developer or speculator as location by itself sells. But the most questionable part is bypassing Paul Liew, a qualified valuer, who was tasked by the Standing Committee as negotiator.
I am very disappointed with the blog “The real truth” . So far ZERO comment. The only comment I can see is:
——- September 1, 2012 by asctherealtruth
For those who have recently commented with “why don’t you post something/defend yourself/list out the rumours etc etc.” (Phew, luckily comments need to be moderated before they appear on the blog) Take it easy and relax. The rumours will be dealt with in due time.
That is to say, not by demand. Cheers!
——–
I guess everything must be checked by YTC and AV before uploaded. Wonder if there is any real truth ?
Anonymous: When you have a mountain of lies you are trying to hide, what can you publish? Can you imagine the lives of those who try to cover up? They must have sleepless nights. They must dread going to public places. They must feel the guilt 24/7. So rejoice because we enjoy the freedom of walking in the light. The Truth shall set us free.
From what I can see.ADOS is rich.We have ready cash to buy properties then why the need to ask members to keep donating.The church has cash to buy land in Sipitang,why the need there,how many Anglicans are worshipping there? To sell the prime land in Likas and then to buy a piece of land in the interior.what for?Money gone to that Land sitting there does not earn any income. whereas your churches in the interior are crying out for money.Church has Money to buy from AVCF’s land in Menggatal selling to AVCF’s church ( more like his anyway).Can Paul Liew enlighten us how that transaction came into being,who was the chairman in that committee if ever there was one,and how come the land was sold at one ringgit above market value and how much was valued on his land at that time? How much was sold for his land anyway,it was always said one ringgit above market value? Is there a need to buy a new building in Thailand to be used as a church?What about the existing one,left empty? How many people are worshipping there? I heard the language used is Thai and our people do not know how to speak Thai,only one of them now starts learning but how much money is spent on her sending her to learn? What about the Bejing school,his wife wanted to start there but not successful and incurring lots of money on it? What about the FCC Academy,never revealed whether it is running at a loss or profit and how many children studying there? Of course his CC vision-where are his plans etc… Did the Synod query all these? AV promised to answer everyone of them.Were these questions asked and answered?We are all very anxious to know his side of the story.Bishop speak up,don’t let others to defend for you.You are big enough to do a lot of things by yourself without letting others know about them but when it comes to answering questions you are like a turtle.We want facts to substantiate your rebuttal not one word answers only.Will you do that? JK asked so many questions in your cronies’ blog but not one answered so far.! The members are no more the timid ones,this is the 21st C ,everything has changed.If you keep on hiding the real truth,they are thinking of asking the MACC to help them since you also asked the Police to help you even though the sheep did not do anything wrong! Think about it bishop!
To
A senior Citizen of the church,
Well said! I fully support your comment. AV should call a meeting without further delay and explain all these issues face to face with his congregation. A humble heart is required to do this. There is no shame to admit your mistakes and it requires courage to do this. Hope AV will come to his senses like the prodigal son.