Aug 25, 2006
Youth Challenge founder should explain salary
I REFER to the article, 'Charity group Youth Challenge under probe'
(ST, Aug 22).
I believe that many members of the public, like myself, would
donate to charities out of compassion and most of us would give
these charities the benefit of the doubt that our donations would
be used appropriately.
However, I am both shocked and appalled that Youth Challenge
founder Vincent Lam drew a salary of $13,000 per month even though
the charity raised only $400,000 in a year. This works out to
$156,000 (excluding any possible bonuses and other benefits), or 39
per cent of the funds raised.
While I doubt that investigations into the charity's books would
reveal any wrongdoing, I would like to ask how Mr Lam could justify
paying himself about 40 per cent of the monies raised.
This is money from public donations and if no proper explanation is
given, I believe many would definitely hesitate the next time they
are approached for donations.
Kent Hong Kwok Fai
