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Timeline and Events at Pour Tous Purchasing Service (PTPS)

The current situation of the Pour Tous Purchasing Service (PTPS) is a long and complicated

story. The current executives of PTPS have tried to summarize the situation below.

From the beginning it felt like the Service Trust (ST) didn’t really want or support any changes

at PTPS.

Even from before the moment our Community decided to finally change the management at

PTPS, the resistance was enormous:

• It took years of discussion and finally an RAD in 2020 to start the process of turning

PTPS back into a Community service, and less of an income-generating activity.

• A Community process was followed to select new executives (Oct 2021) and appoint a

Management Board to support and oversee the new management.

• There was no cooperation from the old management (understandable) and one person

in the Service Trust (ST) was actively not supportive towards one of the two new

executives.

• The ST seemed to support and to want to keep the old management and appointed a

former PTPS manager as an executive. This executive had received only ONE vote

during the selection (and that vote was from the ST trustee involved in every aspect of

the process, even in areas of conflict of interest. The other executives were selected

unanimously through a community process.

• The ST tried to appoint their choice of an external accountant into a controlling position,

which would make it impossible for the new executives to have any view on what was

happening at PTPS financially.

• The new executives were not allowed access by the outgoing executives to financials,

paper work, ordering, computers, stock inventory or even physical access to the

compound until months after their appointment.

• Despite this the new executives succeeded in slowly taking in hand the management

and successfully implementing the mandated changes:

• Fixed minimal costs and margins

• Financial transparency

• The new executives were confronted with many legacy financial challenges without

much support from the ST or the ST accountant.

• Right after the ST supported executives departed, an inventory revealed almost 6

Lakhs missing... That was when we thought thefts were taking place and we

asked you to leave your bags outside.

• In Aug 2022 the ST accountant agreed to provide management reports but didn't

deliver a suitable report until July 2023 - right after the fraud mentioned above

was detected. The report confirmed the fraud and how it was perpetrated

showing that timely reporting would have shown and avoided the fraud

much earlier.

• An audit by the Auroville Foundation Office (AVFO), requested by the new

executives, started on June 5th 2023.

• 7th July 2023 our office staff discovered and reported a 28 Lakh fraud with

delinquent payments going on from at least February 2022 when the old

management was still in charge of all financial payments and the new executives

had no access to bank or FS accounts.

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• July 2023: The fraud was immediately reported to AVFO, ST and ‘FAMC’ and

guidance was requested. Throughout July to Nov 2023 the executives met and

worked with AVFO on how to deal with the fraud.

• August 2023: After endless requests and negotiations, the ST accountant finally

delivered the requested management report (even though they signed a contract

detailing the report they were promising to deliver in Aug 2022). This report

confirmed that the fraud that was discovered by the new executives had started

under the previous management and therefore was a legacy issue.

• The executives felt they were receiving no support in the challenge of dealing

with the police and how to approach the effects of the fraud. Everyone was

pointing at anybody else. Reports to ‘FAMC’ with suggestions on how to proceed

and requests for guidance were not clearly answered. The process drags on until

today.

• November 2023: Audit by PF & ESI (managed by STacc) revealed that neither PF

nor ESI was in order. ST accountant promised to deal with this but to no effect.

The new executives handled it themselves.

• The ST accountant’s report also reveals a GST debt of Rs.329.000 which is

immediately taken up by the executives and reduced to Rs.20.000 by the admin

team but takes much time and energy to deal with.

• A GST audit at the ST reveals GST debts for Fiscal Year 2017-2018 and 2019-

2020. The new executives ask ST and accountant to verify all other Fiscal Years

for similar debts to no avail.

• June 2024: Another legacy GST discrepancy was discovered. 17.8 lakhs of

penalties and interest were owed but negotiations with the authorities brought

this down to 7.5 lakh, saving over 10 lakhs.

• 28-05-2024: Through a Trust Resolution signed by one trustee, the Service Trust

requests the ‘FAMC’ to shift PTPS to another Trust due to a "permanent conflict" with one

of the two appointed executives, Joel.

• 06-06-2024: ‘FAMC’ advises that PTPS remains under the ST for the time being but asks

ST to nominate a replacement for Joel.

• 17-08-2024: Joel protests and asks for a fair hearing according to the Code of Conduct

(CoC), 2017.

• 17-08-2024: One ST trustee and the Management Board members write supporting

emails to ‘FAMC’ requesting them to let Joel finish his mandate which is until 31 March

2025.

• 20-08-2024: ‘FAMC’ terminates Joel as executive (date 20-08-2024) without a hearing, or

stated reason for the action, and appoints Iyappan. There is no Trust Resolution for this

new executive appointment as is required in the CoC.

• 27-08-2024: The ‘FAMC’ Resolution describing Joel’s termination is emailed to PTPS the

day the executives go to sign the FY 23-24 balance sheet.

To be clear: Kumaran and Joel had asked Iyappan to join the team as a needed third executive

and he agreed.

The issue is the arbitrary way in which the FAMC believes it can simply remove any

executive without giving any proper reason or following the process as described in

the CoC 2017 that they want us all to comply with.

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PTPS has a good team that shows that transparency and efficiency are possible.

It can be done. And there is so much more to do.

Let the team of Kumaran, Iyappan & Joel do the work.

5

th September 2024