KUALA LUMPUR (July 31, 2010) Klang municipal councillor Tee Boon Hock, who has been accused of corrupt activities, has been expelled from DAP.

Tan Kok Wai, who is the chairman of the party’s disciplinary committee, announced this following a meeting of the party’s committee with Tee this evening.

On July 27, an English daily had reported that Tee had allegedly misused a Selangor exco member’s letterhead to secure contracts for his family and friends.

Tee was reported to have misused exco member Ronnie Liu's letterhead and seal to obtain contracts worth a total of RM1 million for 20 companies, including one belonging to a family member.

The councillor denied all the allegations, but was backed up Liu. However, Tee was asked by Tan, who is also DAP vice-chairman to go on leave pending investigations into the matter.

In a press statement issued later in the evening, Tan said the committee had studied all the documents received and had verified that the allegations had some basis.

“Whilst the contractual amount is undetermined, we have just been informed by the Selangor state committee that at least one of the companies which you have issued letter of support were related to your family members and done without the authority of YB Ronnie Liu.
 
“After studying the matter thoroughly and having given due consideration to your explanations, the Disciplinary Committee is unanimously of the view that your explanations do not justify the acts performed by you. We decided that there exists a serious conflict of interest when you exercised the power entrusted to you by the office of YB Ronnie Liu, which therefore constitutes an abuse of power.

“Premised on the above, the Disciplinary Committee is of the view that you had acted in serious breach of the Party’s principle and in violation of the Party’s constitution which should not be condoned. As such, it is the unanimous decision of the Disciplinary Committee to hereby expel you from the Party by terminating your membership of the Party with immediate effect,” Tan said in the statement.

The committee also decided that Liu should lodge a police report against Tee, and that the DAP Selangor State Committee will also be directed to write to the Selangor government to request his immediate removal as Klang municipal councillor.

Tee has 14 days from today to appeal against the decision to the DAP Central Executive Committee.

In a related matter, the committee also deliberated on the practice of issuing business support letters in Selangor.

It said the DAP does not condone the practice of issuing support letters for business or commercial purpose as it could be easily abused and misconstrued. As such, all party elected and non-elected officials have been ordered to stop such practices.
 
It said as a matter of best practice, this directive should apply across the board to all Pakatan Rakyat elected and non-elected officials as well. This is in line with PR' s position of upholding the principle of good governance in state administration, it said in the statement.-- theSun