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SINGAPORE: Ren Ci Hospital and Medicare Centre, where funds were allegedly misappropriated, has tightened its internal procedures and systems to ensure accountability.
The charity's chairman Chua Thian Poh, speaking at a news conference on Thursday, also revealed the organisation has lost about 12 per cent of its regular donors since news of the alleged fraud broke last November.
Since the inquiry, 334 of about 2,700 people who donated via a monthly automatic GIRO deduction scheme, have terminated their donation.
Average monthly GIRO donations totalled S$62,000 before an inquiry into the charity began. The amount dropped to about S$54,000 after its Institution of a Public Character (IPC) status expired, which means the charity has lost the right to collect tax-exempt donations.
The charity, however, said the construction for its new hospital is on track, with plans to operate by year's end. The new hospital is located at Irrawaddy Road. It is expected to provide sub-acute care, community hospital service, day rehabilitation and Traditional Chinese Medicine services.
Thursday's news conference came two days after Ren Ci's former head, Venerable Shi Ming Yi, was charged in court for alleged forgery, conspiracy and misappropriation of charity funds.
Venerable Ming Yi, whose actual name is Goh Kah Heng, is out on a S$200,000 bail. He is due back in court on August 4.
Ren Ci Hospital and Medicare Centre is one of the largest charities in Singapore. It provides medical and step-down care for the needy.
At Ren Ci's charity TV shows, daring stunts by Venerable Ming Yi had moved many to donate. Between December 2006 and June last year, the charity collected S$9.6 million from the shows and regular donors.
But after the authorities stepped in to investigate the 46-year-old monk for the alleged crimes, the charity show was canned and donations dropped by some S$8 million to slightly over S$1 million between December 2007 to June this year.
Now, the charity's management wants to restore public confidence. Committees have been set up and they are looking at areas like corporate governance and stricter internal audits.
Cheques have to have two groups of signatories instead of individual approvals, and the chairman or vice-chairman has to approve them if they are above S$5,000.
The charity has also implemented a whistle-blowing policy.
Chairman Chua said: "We have come up with some regulation on checks and balances, and approval system and for corporate governance. Of course, we're trying to be more transparent and even (have) a more independent director on the board.
"We will ensure... that all these money coming in, every dollar and cent in future, will be spent on the patients. Most of our patients are suffering from multiple chronic illnesses and they need a lot of medical and nursing care. So we hope the public will continue to support us to take care of these poor and sick patients."
The charity also wants to reassure the public that its current reserve of S$28.7 million is intact and not affected by the latest incident. This amount can last the charity some 22 months in the worst-case scenario if it is cut off from the Health Ministry's grants and public donations.
"From now onwards, we will be more prudent... all the mistakes which we have made, we will correct them," said Mr Chua.
The charity organisation is working with the Health Ministry to appoint a new chief executive officer soon to replace Venerable Ming Yi.
Despite the latest setback, the charity says morale among its over 300 staff is still high.
- CNA/ir
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