Youth Challenge
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All these cases only tells me that the corrupted always pay themselves the most money...
Title : Police looking into Youth Challenge's complaint of missing money
By : Julia Ng, Channel NewsAsia
Date : 25 Jan 2007 2118 hrs (GMT + 8hrs)
SINGAPORE: The Commercial Affairs Department is believed to have taken over the investigation of why $15,000 went missing from charity Youth Challenge's bank account.
On Wednesday, the new president of the beleaguered charity made a police report that someone had made an electronic transfer of $15,220 over the internet believed to be salaries for one full-time staff at Youth Challenge, and its former Executive President Vincent Lam .
However, the new Board had not authorised the withdrawal.
The Board is also investigating if there were other unauthorised withdrawals prior to the one made on 15 January.
On Tuesday, the Commissioner of Charities issued a statement saying investigations revealed that Youth Challenge had many irregularities and lacked governance, management and financial controls.
Lam had been in the news for his extravagant pay package, unveiled in a probe by the Commissioner of Charities.
Among the complaints - his pay of $248,000, which is more than half the income of the charity's income last year. - CNA /dt -
SINGAPORE: More trouble is brewing for Youth Challenge founder Vincent Lam .
The charity's new board has discovered that $15,220 had been electronically transferred over the internet without its authorisation.
The Board says it is lodging a police report, and it is also trying to get back part of the hundreds of thousands of dollars paid to Lam.
The new Board was roped in last October, after the Commissioner of Charities probed Youth Challenge following a complaint lodged by the National Council of Social Service in August, alleging breaches in the way the charity was run.
Some of the new Board members were former volunteers at the youth charity, while others were friends of Lam who approached them to help keep the charity's programmes going.
However, as members got down to work, even they were shocked at the salary paid to Lam.
"In our view it was extravagant. As the honourable Commissioner said, it's way above even for civil service standards. For example, a gratuity will be paid for every 5 years of service. So every 5 years, the percentage increases all the way to the 20th year! It comes to about 10 percent of the annual remuneration - this can work out to quite a substantial amount!" said Mr Looi Teck Kheong, President, Youth Challenge.
The first thing the Board did was to get rid of the gratuity package.
Last December, Lam wrote a cheque of $25,000 to be paid to himself as a performance bonus, but the Board refused to approve it and Lam did not get the two signatures needed for cheque approval.
It also moved to cut his salary from $13,500 to $6,400, which was approved at a 12th January board meeting 3 days before the charity's pay day.
Other benefits like medical and dental package, and travel perks were also slashed, and brought in line with the National Council of Social Service's guidelines.
However, it was not until the Board met the Commissioner of Charities on Monday that they found out the charity had an electronic payment facility.
This is against the charity's constitution which requires two levels of approval on funds.
Board members immediately went to the bank to cancel the internet banking facility, and that was when they were told that $15,220 had been electronically transferred out on the 15th January.
The amount is equivalent to Lam's previous monthly salary, plus that of the only other full-time staff.
"The police report that we're filing is really to put on record that there was such an internet transfer being effected. In our view of course we think it's probably not authorised but it's subject to investigation," said Mr Looi.
The new Board hopes to recover part of the $248,000 paid to Lam as remuneration at the end of the last financial year.
It is now checking with its auditors and lawyers on the grounds for recovery.
The Board has since retracted its earlier statement that Lam had not 'misappropriated' any money.
It is now conducting its own investigation to find out who from the previous boards approved Lam's extravagant pay packet.
In the meantime, it is suspending all fundraising activities as it puts its house in order.
However, programmes like youth humanitarian missions abroad, and Chinese New Year lunches for the elderly will still go ahead.
The charity has some $800,000 in reserves and believes it can survive on the money for two years.
The new Board is confident it can rectify the breaches and weakness in the charity's governance within the 6 months given by the Commissioner. - CNA /dt /ch -
Title : Youth Challenge found lacking in transparency, corporate governance
By :
Date : 23 Jan 2007 1626 hrs (GMT + 8hrs)
SINGAPORE : Local charity Youth Challenge has been found to have many irregularities and lacking in governance, management and financial controls.
The Commissioner of Charities, which comes under the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports, revealed this after completing an inquiry on the organisation, following a complaint last year.
The probe on Youth Challenge started in August last year after some students blew the whistle on its practices.
The COC investigation revealed the organisation lacked transparency and had been giving misleading information on the remuneration of its Executive President Vincent Lam .
The key findings - Lam's total annual remuneration of $248,867 which ended last year, was more than half of total donations and other income earned by the charity.
The COC said Lam was paid various benefits and allowances, well above civil service and charity sector norms. No system of annual performance evaluation was in place.
Youth Challenge also allowed blank cheques to be pre-signed by signatories.
Also of grave concern was the fact that Lam was able to transact electronic payments, including his salary, without a second level of approval.
Lam has resigned from his post on Monday.
And now, operations at the Youth Challenge are continuing as normal.
But in a statement, the Youth Challenge President Looi Teck Kheong said all humanitarian programmes will proceed as planned.
The new management committee, which has been running the charity since October last year, notes that the inquiry results reveal no misappropriation of public funds.
It says it values the COC's inputs and will implement the necessary changes and recommendations.
The COC has given the committee six months to rectify breaches and weaknesses in the governance and management of the charity.
In reply to queries from Channel NewsAsia, the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore says it will review the past income tax declarations of Vincent Lam after it receives details of his income, benefits and allowances from the COC.
If Lam had under-declared or filed an incorrect tax return, appropriate action will be taken against him under the Income Tax Act.
If convicted, he faces a penalty of up to twice the amount of tax undercharged, a fine or jail term. - CNA /ls -
I guess its monkey see, monkey do.
So who did the monkey see as the biggest example for the monkey to do???