This Content Is Only For Subscribers
KUCHING, June 20: A senior accountant is working towards the formation of a Defence League Sarawak Accountants to protect the interests of members of the Malaysia Institute of Accountants (MIA).
Senior accountant Wong Ching Yong urged all MIA members to safeguard and protect their constitutional rights by joining the league.
“If members of MIA feel that the Disciplinary Committee had erred in facts and law, they must discuss their cases with legal counsel and seriously consider to appeal to the Disciplinary Appeal Board first. The appellant can only appeal for judicial review after exhausting the internal procedures.
“It is a pity that many members did not even bother to appeal to the Disciplinary Appeal Board after receiving a decision from the Investigation Committee.
“I also appeal to MIA members to seriously consider to form a Defence League amongst members so that aggrieved members could have a platform to discuss their cases and grievances,” said Wong in a press statement today.
On the recent clarification by MIA on his case, he said MIA had missed out one important decision by the Disciplinary Appeal Board which ruled that it strictly recommended that his firm could not be rated as “unsatisfactory” as previously decided by the Disciplinary Committee earlier.
“I urge members of MIA to take note of this important finding by the Disciplinary Appeal Board,” said Wong who is also Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP) Dudong chief and Sibu Rural District Council deputy chairman.
He said after the Federal Court ruling against the MIA, many friends in the legal fraternity informed him that MIA should have the magnanimity to accept the unanimous decision of the Court of Appeal that there were procedural improprieties and breach of natural justice by the Disciplinary Committee hearing that case and that MIA shouldn’t proceed to file an application for leave to the Federal Court.
“This was because the complainant of my case was only the Practice Review Committee which is an internal committee of MIA and not a complaint from the public,” said Wong.
The Federal Court in Kuching unanimously had on May 16, 2023 dismissed the leave application of MIA against Wong who was alleged to have committed unprofessional conduct during a practice review.
The Court dismissed the application of MIA for leave to appeal against the Court of Appeals’s decision on June 21, 2022, which allowed Wong to successfully set aside the 2016 decision of MIA’s investigating committee to charge him before its Disciplinary Committee which had previously ruled in 2018 that Wong had committed unprofessional conduct during a practice review, as defined by Rule 2 of MIA (No.2) Disciplinary Regulations 2002.
The Court of Appeal then found that MIA, in pursuing a charge of duplicity, had committed procedural improprieties and had violated the principles of natural justice during the disciplinary hearing against Wong, who is a professional accountant.
The Federal Court ordered MIA to pay costs of RM30,000 to Wong, together with RM15,000 cost ordered by the Court of Appeal in June 2022. — DayakDaily
