NKF-that can of worms has already been opened!

last SG · 2005-07-12T23:24:59+00:00

Tuesday August 8, 12:17 PM Four third party defendants downplay individual roles in NKF The blame game continues in the S$12 million National Kidney Founda...

LittleTiger SG

I think police must comes in and interfere, especially commercial crime investigator. Investigate all the board of directors, durai and its workers there.... and not just resign only as they already dont know pocket how many millions into their "Swiss acct".
A proble shall be done and make them fork up the $$$ they swallow and send them to jail for.

parryhotter SG

Agreed! But it seems Durai and the gang (BODs) will escape scot-free. Politics? The followings are what PM Lee said in his interview in the US:

"Mr Lee said the NKF had to be accountable to the public if it expects to get donations from them, and transparency is one way to make things better, and to rebuild trust. "

My thoughts: I take it he meant that NKF had failed in this department. Mr. Lee MUST also rule out what has to be done Durai and his BODs. Can you, or me, or anyone else let them escape without punishment?

"One reassurance from the Prime Minister: a new team will go into the organisation and if there is anything wrong, the team will find it and fix it."

My thoughts: Sir, please don't just find and fix the problem, fix the CEO and his BODs too.

PM Lee said: "Obviously the checks and balances didn't work. The CEO is responsible, he reports to the Board, the Board has fiduciary responsibility to answer for this, so somehow it didn't function. They have resigned, let's start from scratch."

My thoughts: Sir, before NKF start from scratch, we (the donors) wouldn't be pleased to see if the CEO and his BODs are "scratch-free".

Something for us to ponder: Why isn't Mr. Lee rule out any actions to be taken against those who mismanaged the funds?

Another question: Are the BODs paid?

Bottom-line: Those responsible must be brought to justice. They must not be left unpunished or there will be no justice at all.

Thank you.

DriftingGuy SG

From what i read in the news.. the BODs are lawyers, doctors and other professionals who are either unpaid volunteers or receive allowances insignificant as compared to Durai's 25k a month

OldAhPek SG

Handsome not?!!
lolx

parryhotter SG

Thanks for your input.

dryver SG

yah yah, so she knows what peanuts are. gosh! that shld get her the biggest monkey,king kong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! how many peanuts and banans can you get with 600k?

nofate SG

just thinking
IS the money they spend are more then wat are use to help the needly people??

chaar123 SG

Gani na bu CHJAO CHEEBYE nkf SUCKS la SUCKS la

Lucky i neber donate. But my school FORCE us to work for NKF carry the tin csan and Beg ppl for donations! WHoa lan chao cheebye..

I beri beck check alreadi

OldAhPek SG

sheeese....
u look more refined, more intelligent, and less spastic
if u just sheese.....
thanks Wink

durai SG

Anybody wondered how Durai could have drawn such a big salary and at the same time get a 12-month bonus?

The bigger issue here is since NKF is a charity organisation, it should be under some government body right? Could Durai's bouns be the same as the other high-level civil servants? Meaning, Durai's bonus scheme could be consistent with some guidelines from the civil service right?

Think about it, the entire S'pore's high-level civil servants' bonus could have also been 12 months! If so, then Durai would not be the only guilty party right?

I'm not 100% sure about this... could anyone confirm this?

robertteh SG

The issue is: Whom did Durai consult with before he sued the two parties who alleged potential abuses like Durai's first-class travels..

Did Durai consult his members of the board or get the patron's or government blessing in doing so.

If he did get the government's blessing behind his earlier defamation actions against the two whistle blowers, the government should now be morally upright to own up and advise NKF new board to make relevant amends or apologies to these two whistle blowers who had sacrificed for the public good.

The minimum is to publish an apology if NKF has admitted the first-class travels or the golden taps. After all the new NKF should want to start afresh like what the PM has promised. If indeed so, then it should come clean and start with a correct image in order to show its willingness to admit mistakes and be transparent in future.

After all the whole episode has clearly established one fact that Durai has indeed travelled first class and spent extravagantly the public donation monies for his own purpose.

I am sure Khaw Boon Wan wants the new NKF board to be clean and upright. If so then the new board should correct the past rash or wrongful acts by admitting those abuses which were not admitted in the earlier lawsuits until Davinder spilled the facts wide open. The new NKF should see fit and proper to do the right thing.

May be Gerald Eee will do so to win back trust and confidence to NKF again for NKF as well as for the government officers who had been informed and given blessing to those two earlier suits. Laughing

cannynabbe SG

The funny thing is that if T.T Durai didn't sue SPH and its senior writer Ms Susan Long, these rotten beans wouldn't be spilled... and people would still be happily donating to NKF on Thursday's show. and the two persons who were earlier sued by T.T Durai under similar circumstances would still be misjudged...and Singaporeans will still live in ignorance and bliss.... and T.T Durai will continue to get his 12 months bonus and who knows... more taps in gold-platings... Well.. thats a very hypothetical IF... I digress..

Well, however I do agree that being a CEO of a VWO with the scale and means of NKF should be paid a decent wage... but bonus of 12 months for a few years running, especially with the economy in bad shape... its a hard pill to swallow. So what exactly are the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) of NKF? What performance benchmarks were so well attained to warrant a 12 month bonus to NKF's CEO. Is NKF's KPIs the number of patients it treats, or the number of patients it turn away because they dun qualify..? or is it the amount of money that NKF raise during the charity shows. The effectiveness of NKF should be measured by the number of patients it treats...regardless of race, religion, social status.... and not by the dollars and cents raised during charity events... nor the number of cars that donors won....nor by the amount of publicity the public saw....
NKF's policy of determining who it should serve must be changed.

If NKF doesn't have such a huge reserve, one can understand why they refuse to help middle-class patients... but it seems that with all the money on offer for lucky draws and cars... not to mention the CEO's pay packages and expensive bathroom fittings... one cannot help but wonder why there are kidney patients who were refused help by NKF.

Lastly, while Mr T.T Durai has not done anything against the law... except maybe for his non-disclosure of directorship in another company which counts NKF as one of its main customers. I am wondering if there are any breaches in commercial law here... is there any corruption involved?
The absence of integrity here... is sadly..omni-present

SOP SG

SM Goh CT says what her wife commented was regrettable… Gentleman. Steady! HOW COME MRS GOH CANNOT APOLOGISE HERSELF?????

Y-not SG

Thumbs up to him for saying that, but she shld do it herself.

It's not his fault... he's a great guy!

Medicated Oil SG

T T Durian : I am not wrong.

Mrs Peanut : I am not wrong.

Ex-BOD : We are not wrong.

All involved are not wrong except for the people that are not involved.

It seems that the people that is not wrong are apologising for the wrong-doers.

At this moment, I need to clarify that the fury on NKF is directed at the management, NOT on the HARDWORKING NURSE and the KIDNEY PAITENTS.

NKF was set up to serve more kidney paitents, NOT to restrict treatment for kidney paitents.

Archirodon SG

I'm still for a public inquiry to clear the air. Transparency is the key factor. Surprised

robertteh SG

Yes indeed the key issue is about transparency in NKF and even the government.

Here is one post to Feedback Unit to ask ministers to be candid and objective in anwering queries in parliaments:-

A Reply to Forumer who produced a minister's reply on NKF reserve in 2004:-

QUOTE: "If this is the kind of ministerial reply to people's queries, Singapore's standard of corporate governance will continue to be low and self-centred.

PM Lee said in the press conference in USA that something has gone wrong with the NKF Board in not providing the necesssary checks and balances on the CEO.

It is now clear from the ministerial reply to query in this instance that IT is full of inaccuracy and lacking transparency in giving vital information to parliament with regard to patient subsidy (lately found to be only S$300 per month not S$3,000 as reported) and how long the reserve will last to carry on treating the 2000 patients.

I remember the same inaccuracy was given to parliament about transportation costs and HDB flat subsidy. If PM Lee must know the reason why checks and balances did not work in NKF case, I think the reason is clearly established in the above-stated ministerial reply to parliament. There is clearly a lot of justification, generalization and assumptions which at the end covers up the whole lots of problems.

PM Lee can instruct the ministers to be candid instead of making all kinds of general assumptions that mull over problems. He can instruct the ministers in being more objective and candid so that NKF and GLCs will not learn to copy them.

If the top do not set the tone on corporate governance there can be no improvements or remaking of Singapore to talk about. There might be more NKF cans of worms no doubt. I hope to hear him say to all his ministers "The Buck stops here!!!!UNQUOTE

margarita SG

but they approved duria's bonus. why?

robertteh SG

Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan spoke on the NKF saga said: "People should not over-react or pre-judge on what has happened"

Mr. Durai and the whole board have resigned because of expose in the SPH/NKF defamation suit about excessive salaries, 12-month bonuses, first-class air travel and golden taps in Durai's private closets.

Are these expose not factual? Why there was this continual cover=up for 13 years and finally when facts are out the ministers are still trying to stonewall the issue calling it "overeacting or pre-judging the issue".

Are the people over-reacting or pre-judging issues arising out of facts disclosed finally in this court case?

I remember I attended the annual Feedback Unit's annual conference at Suntec in 2002 and stood up to ask Dr. Vivian the first question from the floor at the conference: "The high cost of living and doing business in Singapore is the number-one issue affecting the nation, what will your Remaking Singapore committee do to help solve this problem.?"

Dr. Vivian's reply (as far as I could remember): Cost has two components the fixed cost and variable cost. Over the variable cost there are portion over which the government has no control. He understood people's concern and would be looking into this problem.

Today, after all the Remaking of Singapore, has Dr. Vivian solved the high cost problem. All we know and experience after all the remaking by his committee is that there will be more transport fare and other fee increases.

If PM wants to build an inclusive society, he has to make all the committees effective and not as a means to justify existing shortcomings and finally ending in covering up the problem as has happened to the handling of high costs.

The NKF case is just a tip of the iceberg. People are not over-reacting or pre-judging so it is Dr. Vivian who should adopt a more candid approach and not resort to the same cost-cost gerrymandeering way to avoid solutions in the whole remaking exercise while trying to cover-up (not brought up for solution) real problems and issues again !!! P

eople waited long enough to get an answer why the NKF was not revealing information and be more transparent and it was finally spilled out in a court case.

It is the government's lack of transparency at the ministers' level that is the root of the problem !!!

Atobe SG

Why did they approve Durai's "12 MONTHS" bonus indeed ?

The other question that has been missed is that :

HOW MUCH HAS THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS BEEN PAID ?

If they approved Durai's "12 MONTHS" bonus, how many months have they approved to be paid for themselves, AND also the Executive and Non-Executive staff of NKF - (who will certainly deserve their bonuses more than Durai) ?

Supposedly, one should think on the "safe side" that the Patron's position is "HONORARY" and that the position does not enjoy remunerations of any kind.

Was the Board of Directors "handpicked" by Durai - which will probably explain for the ease in getting approval for the "12 MONTHS" ?

With a Patron from the Establishment, it will seem that Durai has borrowed a page from the National Stage, having justified and hidding behind the fact that his "12 MONTHS" was approved by the Board.

Does this not look familiar ? We have a Parliament with a majority controlled by a Ruling Party for more then 40 years, and with "hand-picked" elected Members, who also approved the $1Million PER YEAR salary to the Ministers ?

No wonder the Patron responded that it was "PEANUTS" for the $1.8MILLION that was paid to Durai over a period of THREE Years, when her husband was paid $1MILLION PER YEAR !

« Previous Page Next Page »