OPEN letter to AVCF

OPEN letter to the Anglican Bishop of Sabah cum sole trustee  1^st July, 2012

BISHOPGATE – protest against the Celebration  Centre in All Saints’ Cathedral

1.         As a member and a beneficiary of Anglican Church of Sabah especially of All Saints’ Cathedral, I would like to ask the Bishop Datuk Albert Vun Cheong Fui to suspend the Ground breaking ceremony of the Celebration  Centre in All Saints’ Cathedral worth RM30 millions on 24^th July, 2012.

2.         Amongst the reasons for this request are the following:-

2.1       The Bishop has yet presented the complete development plan for public preview.

2.2       The Bishop has already incurred a lot of preliminary costs of the said project without accountability since November, 2011 when fund raising was commenced without a permit to raise fund from the public.

2.3       The Bishop has yet to present its statement of accounts since last year indicating how much of receipts and expenditure so far even after the Bishop and as Dean of All Saints’ Cathedral has transferred some money to the said Building Fund possibly unauthorized.

2.4       It is known that ASC needs to raise 60% of the project costs and failing that target within the shortest time, it is likely the project would be stalled and a white elephant in ASC ground.

2.5       It is understood that it is good practice for the church to have at least 50% of the desired sum before the project is to be started.

3.         STOP order

3.1       Unless the terms and conditions in 2 above are met, a stop order is desired.  There is no point to launch the project with ground breaking ceremony.

3.2       The Bishop must now call an EGM for the purpose to consider this STOP order.

4.         Burden for members and beneficiaries of ADOS

In the absence of adequate fund to complete this project, all sorts of problems can arise with the main contractors, the consultants and the authorities and it would be meaningless and costly to dismantle an incomplete concrete building.  Furthermore when such a big contract encounter financial constraints, ADOS would be placed in untenable and precarious  position resulting in the total collapse of Anglican Church in Sabah when ASC could lose its priced and precious land asset in  ASC as any source of finance would demand collateral.  This has happened in  Kota Kinabalu and can happen again when the same ‘players’ are involved...

5.         NOTICE to be heeded

Bishop, please take NOTICE of this STOP order.  You had been removed as acting Dean of ASC by the ASC AGM 2012’s resolution with two third majority and yet you have ignored it.  You are into an illegal project in ASC ground when you did an illegal Kokol Prayers Summit recently.

Joshua Y. C. Kong

012-8380897

This open letter is done in response to the announcement of the Ground Breaking ceremonyin the ASC Sunday’s Bulletin of 1^st July, 2012.