KUALA LUMPUR, July 29 — The Registrar of Societies (RoS) said today that it is not investigating the MCA over the party’s allegedly tainted membership roll as it has yet to receive a complaint.

Businessman Datuk Vincent Ng claimed last Friday that he was part of an operation to create tens of thousands of phantom members for the Barisan Nasional (BN) component party in the 1990s.

“MCA — yet to receive any complaint,” RoS director-general Datuk Abdul Rahman Othman told The Malay Mail Online via a text message.

MCA deputy president Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai suggested yesterday that the MCA re-register members before party elections in December.

He was also reported by the New Sunday Times as acknowledging the claim of phantom members, but noted that action had been taken to resolve the matter.

The English-language paper quoted Liow as saying that the proposal to re-register members would be tabled at the MCA’s annual general assembly in December as part of the party’s Transformation Blueprint.

Ng had told Chinese-language paper Sin Chew Daily that the fictitious MCA members were churned out to manipulate the outcome of party polls.

But former MCA organising secretary Datuk Seri Ong Ka Chuan yesterday reportedly disputed Ng’s claim that tens of thousands of phantom MCA members were created, pointing to stringent checks by the party to ensure fake applications are weeded out.

Ong told Sin Chew that the party and its new membership figures were at a peak during the 1990s, indicating that it was not necessary to create phantom members.

Ong also said that the MCA president during his time, Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik, had urged the central leadership to ensure that there would be no repeat incidents of phantom members.

MCA vice-president Gan Ping Sieu was reported by Sin Chew as saying that the existence of phantom members was a concern during the 1990s and during the internal power struggle in 2001 and 2002, but noted that it was a problem of the past.

“Under the new leadership, these problems have already been gradually resolved, and after 2003, the recruitment of new members has become very stringent,” he was quoted as saying by Sin Chew.

Ng had said that he had spoken out in the hope that the MCA would conduct an exercise to re-register its members.

The businessman’s allegations come amids the MCA’s efforts to reform the party after it lost support from the Chinese community, its traditional support base, in the 13th general election.

In the May 5 polls, the MCA only managed to win seven parliamentary and 11 state seats, down from the 15 federal and 31 state seats it took in Election 2008.