[blkoh]

THE BIG CHARITY CHOP
--------------------
Charities deregistered, police complaint made against boss

Jasmine Yin
jasm...@mediacorp.com.sg

THE launch of tighter rules for the charity sector on Tuesday saw three
charities getting the chop, and officials from the Commissioner of
Charities office heading down to the police station to file a complaint
against the man behind what they described as three "dubious" set-ups.

In the toughest show of action by a regulator since the National Kidney
Foundation (NKF) debacle in 2005, the commissioner's office struck off the
Children of Singapore Foundation, the Children's Lukaemia Foundation and
Club Sunshine, previously known as the Kids-In-Distress Foundation, and
barred them from any further public fund-raising.

A fourth organisation - Kidney Fund Organisation - was also barred from
seeking funds while the commissioner's office monitored its operations.

Surplus funds from the first three organisations will be "distributed to
other charities with similar objectives", the commissioner's office told
Today. Beneficiaries, believed to be not more than a handful, can approach
the commissioner's office for assistance.

The man behind the three organisations - Mr Rajendren Rajamani, described
by some as a man with "a lot of dreams" - is now the subject of police
investigation. Reportedly a full-time investor in his mid-20s, he and his
parents set up the three organisations.

In a media statement yesterday, the commissioner's office said it had
"found serious irregularities and suspicious transactions in the
administration of the charities by Mr Rajendren and has viewed the
intentions of the charities to be not exclusively charitable".

Mr Rajendren was not available for comment despite attempts by Today to
contact him.

First indications that Mr Rajendren was not playing by the rules surfaced
last year when the Children of Singapore Foundation embarked on its
fund-raising drives, with Mr Rajendran taking out newspaper
advertisements to announce the events.

He also hired a professional entity to raise funds from the public even
though the foundation had few beneficiaries, no staff and did not appear
to have professionally-run services or programmes.

Also, funds raised by the Children's Lukaemia Foundation were not
disbursed because the organisation wanted to build up its reserves before
offering help to families struggling with the costs of treatment, Mr
Rajendren had reportedly said.

Still, Mr Rajendren had his admirers.

Ms Joyce Lye, who is founder and volunteer of charity Kampung Senang,
recalled him as a "passionate young man who had the consciousness to help
others" when they met some years ago.

She helped him raise funds from the sales of postcards designed by him, to
help needy children in Africa and India, she told Today. Proceeds from the
joint project - about $9,000 - were donated in the end to children who
were helped by Kampung Senang, after he said he did not have any
humanitarian project to use the funds for.

"My impression at that time was that he was a young man with a lot of
dreams ... but he did not seem to know much about the regulations that
were needed to get things done then," Ms Lye said.

That lack of knowledge was underscored at a press conference in February,
when Commissioner Low Puk Yeong said that Mr Rajendren's organisations
were unlikely to gain registration under the new regulations drawn up a
month earlier.

The tougher rules came with the amendment of the Charities Act in
Parliament in January. It sought to invest the commissioner with greater
regulatory powers, and restore order - and public confidence - to the
charities sector battered by fallout from the NKF saga.

Since 2003, 351 new charities have been set up. Last year alone, 74
charities were registered. There are currently some 1,900 organisations
in the charity sector.

The organisation being monitored - the Kidney Fund Organisation (KFO) -
had applied to be registered as a charity with the purpose of providing
financial aid to needy patients with kidney and other chronic illnesses.

But, in denying its application, the commissioner's office said only a
"small fraction" of the $110,000 in total donations collected by the KFO
last year went to "a few beneficiaries".

About 75 per cent went to paying for a commercial fund-raising company,
Amanah Fitrah, which is owned by the KFO vice-president - whose wife is
the KFO president. Amanah Fitrah hires the third trustee of KFO.

The ties between the two entities "posed a serious conflict of interest",
the commissioner's office deemed.

Associate Professor Mak Yuen Teen, who heads the Corporate Governance and
Financial Reporting Centre at a local tertiary business school, said
legitimate charities that comply with regulations have "nothing to fear"
from this slew of developments, he said.

"This kind of tough action - most likely taken as a last resort - will
remove questionable practices that have cropped up in the charity sector
and restore public confidence."

[Whatonly]

quite chim and long..

[gaoxing84]

wow. thats long! haha