Monday December 5, 2005

Kidney charity gets an ‘F’ for its former management’s style

THE NATIONAL Kidney Foundation (NKF) gets a distinction for fund-raising, an “A” for patient care, but an “F” for corporate governance.

That is the report card that Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan gave to the charity when it was run by the former team lead by T.T. Durai.

In his first public comments since the new NKF board released its progress report on Wednesday, Khaw had some strong words about the previous one-man show organisational style.

Khaw said checks and balances that should have been an integral part of any organisation seemed to have “failed or disappeared.”

Wondering aloud how “the board of directors allowed itself to be almost completely captured by the former CEO,” he said: “No organisation can leave just one man to make decisions.”

While he praised the old NKF team for being good at fund-raising, he also added that the organisation was too preoccupied with money. “I think the end-all and be-all of their mission appears to have been just fund-raising.”

The progress report had offered a glimpse into the charity’s flat organisational structure in which 48 department heads reported to Durai and senior executives could approve buying, spending and other staff perks at their discretion.

Durai and the entire NKF board of directors resigned in July following revelations that he had earned more than S$600,000 (RM1.34mil) a year, flew first-class on overseas trips and misrepresented the number of patients the NKF served. – The Straits Times/ Asia News Network