Founder and former president of ASA Philippines Foundation Inc. Kamrul Tarafder objected to the hiring of Associated Risk investigator David Mundy to look into the threats he and his family had been receiving from unknown sources after his son traced a phone used to threaten them to Thailand where the CEO of Associated Risk was based.

Kamrul’s objection, however, was taken against him by the ASA Board which had engaged the security consultant in violation of the right to privacy of Kamrul and his family.

In addition, ASA Foundation engaged the private security firm, Olympus Inc., which according to available public information, was linked to the Maguindanao Massacre.

On his end, Kamrul engaged a group of security advisors to do a separate investigation into the matter.

His hired sleuth indicated concerns about the actions the Board had taken with regard to the conduct of the security investigations.

Amid the security concerns about Kamrul and his family, he was removed as president of ASA Foundation on 20 May 2024 during a special board meeting called by the corporate secretary of the Foundation.

Kamrul said he was removed as president based on “fabricated and twisted allegations” that included: involvement in IT matters of Jyosna Inc. even though these were related-party transactions through his son’s ownership and management of Jyosna; consistently obstructing the Foundation’s adoption of the new CAMS computer system in favor of Jyosna’s ATMOS;

Opposing the establishment of good governance initiatives and the proposed controls for checks and balances by the Board of Trustees, such as the establishment of an information technology (IT) steering committee; mismanaging the data breach that occurred in October 2023; disputing the findings of third-party cybersecurity firm Trustwave Inc. on the data breach where clients’ information were exfiltrated;

Threatening the foundation’s IT department heads and accusing them of bypassing Kamrul’s authority as president, instead of just focusing on resolving the data breach; not speaking up in defense of the foundation amid Jyosna’s accusation of criminal acts after the retrieval of a copy of a data file containing information about the foundation’s clients; and issuing a Special Administrative Order directing the foundation’s staff to refrain from taking instructions from the board and its committees without Kamrul’s permission, in direct contravention of the Foundation’s principles of transparency, accountability and effective governance.

No chance of a reply

Kamrul said he was not allowed to respond to these false allegations during the meeting, but he sent a letter-response anyway disputing all the allegations.

On the day that Kamrul was removed, a copy of the board resolution was immediately circulated to ASA employees informing them, among other things, of Kamrul’s removal and that they were henceforth prohibited from communicating with him.

The Board Resolution also stated that Kamrul was barred from entering the ASA Philippines office and visiting any of its branches.

Kamrul’s suspicions were triggered after a copy of the board resolution given to him and the one circulated to the employees showed substantial discrepancies. Eric Gotuaco would then be named interim foundation president. (To be continued)