Condo Funds Gone, Manager Missing Too

Source : The Straits Times, Dec 28, 2007

At least $200,000 said to be missing from accounts of four condos

A CONDO manager missing since the middle of last year is expected to be the focus of a heated annual general meeting tomorrow.

About a dozen residents of the Adis Villas condominium want its management committee to explain how about $104,000 was allegedly siphoned off from the condo's sinking fund between 2004 and last year.

The 24-unit condo is on Adis Road, near Mount Sophia. Two other condos in the area - Sophia Apartments and Mount Sophia Apartments - were also managed by the missing woman.

A fourth condo, Pelikat Mansions in Hougang, was also managed by her. All four have reported discrepancies in their accounts.

At least $200,000 is said to be missing from the accounts of the four condos.

The missing manager is identified as Ms Amutha Perumal in a circular to Adis Villas residents.

Said one Adis Villas resident, Mrs Kwee Lian Kofod, 78: 'In 2000, several residents warned the committee that its accounts and funds were not properly managed but we received no response.

'Now, they want us to write off a sizeable sum just like that.'

Ms Amutha went missing around the time Adis Villas' management committee chairman Wong Kian Keong filed a police report in May last year.

Apart from Adis Villas' woes, $20,000 is missing from the accounts of Sophia Apartments, which was demolished last year after a collective sale.

It is not known how much Mount Sophia Apartments - which has been sold en bloc and is now nearly vacant - and Pelikat Mansions lost.

Adis Villas has also been sold en bloc.

Mrs Kofod said that residents at Adis Villas voted for the collective sale as they were fed up with the poor state of the condo.

They are also perplexed that another $60,000 in residents' contributions to the fund cannot be accounted for.

The management committee wants the residents to consider writing this off too but some residents are demanding that the committee produce bank statements from 2003 onwards.

The residents have to move out by July. Because of this, Mrs Kofod is worried that tomorrow's meeting will be the last. She said: 'I hope we get some answers.'

When contacted, Mr Wong said that the issue of the missing funds is in the hands of the police.

He added that the details about the residents' contributions can be traced, but that it would take time.