(as posted to FBU on 18.4.2006)
Channel News Asia (18.4.2006)
"Former National Kidney Foundation (NKF) CEO TT Durai has been
slapped with two charges of corruption.
He is accused of submitting false invoices to mislead the
NKF.
One charge reads that 57-year-old Durai had, between December 2003
and January 2004, deceived the NKF into making a $20,000 payment to
a company for providing interior design consultancy service for
various dialysis centres in 2003.
The other alleges he deceived the NKF, in September 2003, into
paying $5,000 to another company as consultancy for hiring a senior
manager for NKF.
In both cases, no such services were rendered.
A former assistant manager of the NKF's purchasing department,
43-year-old Ragini Vijayalingam, faces 11 corruption charges.
She is alleged to have received cash and gifts amounting to more
than $10,000, between September 2003 and July 2005, from a medical
supplies company for helping it to secure contracts and future
business dealings with NKF.
Former NKF Board Member Matilda Chua, 37, faces two charges of
falsifying company accounts with intent to defraud.
She is alleged to have falsified the accounts of Global Net
Relations (GNR), of which she was a director, in December 2001 and
December 2002.
Each offence carries a jail term of up to seven years, or fine, or
both
Chua is out on bail of $20,000.
The three have had their passports impounded.
Former NKF Board Chairman Richard Yong Kun Da and Treasurer Loo Say
San face one charge each under the Companies Act.
This is for failing to exercise reasonable diligence as directors
of NKF."
The irony of NKF case is that the minister was aware of potential
problems at the outset back in the early years when members of the
public was very unhappy with the way NKF was spending its public
donations in other ways instead of on the many suffering kidney
patients.
The minister could have taken action and caused an investigation
and nipped the problem in the bud.
He could have caused the audit firm to look into the ratio of
donation going into patient treatments with accountability and
transparency.
But the minister in charge instead insisted that NKF has the right
not to disclose the amount going to CEO's salaries and bonuses and
other facts. Such denials only served to fuel more pent-up
discontent of public.
Minister should have seen that the crux of the issue was one of
using public donation for relieving the plight of the unaided
suffering kidney patients.
But he went to the opposite and defended NKF and failed to cause a
study of its questionable transactions.
NKF or Durai even became so enbolden as to sue the unlucky whistle
blowers who had unwittingly had to perform the role of the
regulator and had ended up being penalised in paying for Durai's
defamation damages and legal costs which as subsequently disclosed
in the SPH/NKF face-off were somewhat rather unfounded.
Do our ministers want to run charity organization in this manner?
Surely if we cannot rely on minister, audit firm or regulatory
authority there will be no need for the office of minister?
Who was at fault - NKF, Durai or Minister for the innumerable
problems disclosed in so many charity organizations as a result of
this NKF saga ?
The public has raised many issues to our ministers such as the
persistent increases of fees and charges and over-obsessive
accumulating of taxes into reserves. Will the ministers be looking
into all these issues and problems or will they continue to make
denials and put up defences of all kinds without solving
problems?
Are they solving more serious problems facing the people e.g.
creating jobs or lowering the cost of living.
Will our ministers try to solve all these problems after NKF
instead of basking in their past initial success or calling people
who complain whiners or trouble makers. Will they free up
intellectual spaces and be open instead of treating people as
adversaries and trying to close down blogs.
Many ministers are in the habit of slamming critics with
uncalled-for remarks like "there is no such thing as free lunch",
"people are whiners or quitters" and such-like.
Yet, in every swearing-in ceremony they have sworn their oath of
office to serve the republic and the people with due diligence and
allegiance.
What went wrong? What causes NKF? Who are their real paymasters or
customers ?
Instead of trying to be confrontational, minister Khaw, could study
the whole NKF episode, in the larger perspective and conduct a post
mortem to improve MOH's future performances:-
(1) Ministers should be more proactive and not be so defensive in
dealing with complaints or feedbacks.
(2) Do not regard people who complain or give feedbacks as
adversaries.
(3) Do not try to keep defending their actions based on their past
records - look to the future to win over people's support.
He could use the post mortem to reexamine past NKF-like government
policies such as its tax-and-recover system aimed at creating
yearly surpluses to no end. This method of running the country may
impoverise not only the citizens but eventually the whole economy
with the ministers slaughtering the geese that lay the golden eggs.
So look again at people's inputs and seriously look into ways to
solve the "20 major problems of government" as posted to FBU.
He could reexamine the HDB double-charging of lands in its
supposedly low-cost housing as defined in the HDB Act and
government utility company (now privatised as GLC) over-charging on
networking and other fixed assets after corporatisation resulting
in our high costs of living.
There must be something seriously wrong in a country where people
are suffering from dropping wages and property prices of their
homes and yet their transportation and utility costs are taking up
60% of their family incomes.
Ask the banks and finance companies and other financial experts,
and they will tell you that any expenditure of such item exceeding
20% of household income will be deemed over the limit of
affordability.
If government does not grasp the in-depth relationship between
costs of living and our economic competitive, it is now time to
start looking at it to create a more vibrant economy or socially
cohesive country.
So let minister try to use NKF case to solve other serious problems
represented by this case.
Other Asian Tigers or other smaller competitive economies like
Switzerland or Finland are not suffering our type of denial
syndrome and how can we learn from their more entrepreneurship
which we are known to be lacking in the overall perspective.
The recent TV dialogue session shows a gulf in the thinking between
MM Lee and our younger population. So this NKF can be a wake-up
call to our ministers not to be over-confident about their past
success as past performance does not guarantee future
success.
Should our talents always be so obsessed about assumptions which
did not work since the 1970s but were not admitted to this day due
to the autocracy of the whole system.
It is hoped that after NKF, our ministers will learn to be less
defensive and will serve the interest of Singaporeans at large and
not just to defend their respective positions or past
policies.
If they do not change their past mindset they will never be able to
convince the younger population of their talents.
I strong urge them to drop their current defensive mindset and be
more humble and diligently serve the interest of their real
paymasters and customers to avoid more NKF cases.
