why wy?

For those you love a scandal, the hottest brewing right now is the Downfall of NKF. As they say in the heartland, better than Star Wars part 3, the story of how an entire company set up for good was seduced by the dark side of first-class air travel and five figure "study trips" around the world.

There are heaps of links at tomorrow.sg, technorati and here, and good articles at alvin's site, but basically, my australian readers, it is the equivalent of finding out that the royal children's hospital has screwed you over. (note for singaporean readers: the RCH holds a big charity drive every year, similiar to what the NKF does here.)

The NKF was set up to provide cheap dialysis for kidney patients, but over the years morphed into an aggressive team of telemarketers, whose sole aim is to get more donations and build up the charity's reserves (which currently stand at $206 million). It has been run by a man, TT Dorai, who changed it into a personality cult, made it "his little empire'', setting factions against each other. If he liked you, you could get promoted many times a year, see your salary jump from $2k to $12k, and even get backdated pay and $150k bonuses when you leave. If he didn't, he called you a professional beggar (which is a really cruel way to refer to your volunteers). You even get fined for being 5 minutes late for work. The fact that former NKF volunteers are still loyal to him despite all his reported failings proves the man still has a hold on some. To be fair to him, the board members were just as bad, permiting him to run the show the way he did.

And just like a superhero or a greek tragedy, he had a fatal weakness. The worst part is that he could have got away with it for much longer if not for.... his ego.

He had already sued two men for spreading libelious rumours about his first-class travel (which turned out to be true), and won. So when a newspaper mentioned it in a column, buried in so much text that not many would have noticed, Dorai sued again. the inside scoop is that the paper was prepared to settle out of court, even at the very end, but Dorai insisted on turning up to court, in silk shirts no less. And then all the dirt came out (high-priced lawyers can be worth every cent). The joke is that the newspaper should make a contribution to either the charity or the man, as a thank you for giving us so many page ones, ha ha.

There are so many shocking facts to this case that it is impossible to list all.
- his gold taps, like real gold.
- first class travel, which he defended by saying he got it at business class rates. Which begs the question, wouldn't he have saved more if he got business seats at economy rates?
- his enormous salary (upped to $18k a month), 6 month bonus ($60k) and bought-back leave ($73k), company car, insurance policies (beneficiary, his wife, not nkf). Total annual payout - $600k, which is heck of a lot for the head of a charity.
- through some accounting juggle, by refusing a pay increase and bonus payout, he actually GOT MORE MONEY in the end, by s strange combination of backdated pay and special bonus ($30k).
- no proper chain of command, so 48 heads reported directly to him and had no idea what the others were doing.
- he personally went through the appeals for kidney dialysis, and had the power to deny subsidised treatment to patients, instead of having a board to decide.
- treatment wasn't that cheap anyway.
- they claimed at least half of every dollar raised goes to patients, the real figure was 10 cents.
- they claimed to treat more people than they did, and inflated treatment costs (to make them sound more pitiful).
- they got a subsidy on drugs, which they didn't pass on to the patients. Instead, the savings ($1 million a year) went back into the reserves.
- they spent more on fundraising than the legal ratio.
- they gave contracts to companies connected with board members. And continued the contracts even after the companies had not delivered.
- they held massive charity tv events, raising around $5 to $6 million each year, getting starstuck fans and aunties to call in to donate anything fom $5 to $45. A taiwanese boyband got 200 000 calls, which works out to a minimum of $1 million raised.

what is particularly galling for most is that everyone, rich or poor, donated. I remember reading "inspirational" stories of kids who saved up for a whole week to donate their allowance to nkf. They must feel like stiffs now.