NKF's administration brought to public scrutiny

[minsmarine]

Cencered LAR,

Don't tell me you donate to NKF ->

[RAV-65]

Extract from CNA :

SINGAPORE : The National Kidney Foundation and its CEO TT Durai was the talk of town on Wednesday.

This comes after they withdrew their defamation suits against Singapore Press Holdings, following a two-day hearing where the court heard about Mr Durai's pay and job perks.

Some 3,800 donors have cancelled their contributions to the organisation.

At the same time, some 15,000 people signed an online petition calling for Mr Durai to step down.

But NKF staff have rallied behind their boss.

The public spoke out swiftly - in the wee hours of the morning, vandals defaced a signboard outside the NKF building at Kim Keat Road.

Painters were quick to repaint the graffiti but the damage had already been done.

In cyberspace, signatures came pouring in at an online petition website for Mr Durai to step down.

Even at Channelnewsasia.com's online forum, public disappointment was clear.

Many donors said they would cut their donations to the charity after the revelations in court.

This has now put the organisation and its spending under intense public scrutiny.

"They have been misleading to the public, they are already so cash rich, so I am going to withdraw my monthly GIRO I have been paying them."

"It is very unfair, it is a misuse of the money we donated to the organisation.

"If they need our money, we will donate but if they use our money for other needs, then it is not fair as it is difficult for us to make ends meet and when we donate whatever little we have, we do not know where this money goes to."

Besides this call for greater accountability, the majority of those who spoke to Channel NewsAsia said they will not stop donations to the NKF.

"Why should we penalise the kidney patients? They are the beneficiaries, it is the management. We should continue to support the patients."

"I will still donate, it is about helping people. What if someone in your family gets kidney disease or cancer?"

"The NKF still needs to raise funds here and there, and as a Singaporean, I don't mind to chip in a bit."

Despite the backlash, many staff members and patients at the National Kidney Foundation have rallied behind its chief Mr Durai, and they have also called on donors to take a more measured response to the revelations over the past few days.

Dialysis patient Chan Poh Choo, 58, visits a dialysis centre three times a week for treatment.

She made a plea to donors not to write off the NKF because of what has happened.

Ms Chan said: "As a patient, I know the NKF has done a lot for kidney, cancer patients or else we can't afford expensive dialysis and with medical so costly now, the NKF has done a lot and I hope it will carry on with the good work they have done, as we need the funds for survival."

For Job Loei, he is not just a patient but has been working closely with patients there.

Mr Loei said: "Whatever money we raised goes back to the public. Mr Durai has worked very hard, I have seen him over the past four years. He is very passionate about the cause and no matter what, he has done a good job and I will stand by him."

Mr Durai is seen as the engine of the organisation, not only for the 1,800 patients at the 21 dialysis centres islandwide, but also among his 900-strong staff.

Ms Michelle Ang, Deputy Communications Director of NKF, said: "He addressed staff to explain the decision on withdrawing the case, and they gave him a standing ovation.

"As we all know how hard he has worked, his whole life has been about the NKF, the patients especially, as he knows them by name, he sees everyone of them so we all know what TT Durai stands for and he is a great boss."

That is the general consensus among many staff members of the man who has played a key role in building the NKF over the years. - CNA

Standing Ovation?! WTF! clearly there are people blinded....

[RAV-65]

Apparently, posts in the channelnewsasia.com forum about NKF has been cleaned out... read this :

http://info.channelnewsasia.com/bb/viewtop...&postorder=desc

[minsmarine]

RAV

There are 2 kinds of ppl out there.

1. Ignorance or simply NO BRAIN TO BALANCE BETWEEN RIGHT AND WRONG.

2. KNOW NOTHING , but he/she thinks self THAT HE/SHE MOST SMARTEST PERSON IN THE WORLD.

So choose which is your type.

[Clownfish]

Apparently, posts in the channelnewsasia.com forum about NKF has been cleaned out... read this :

http://info.channelnewsasia.com/bb/viewtop...&postorder=desc

WTF!!!!

no freedom of speech in singapore afterall!!!!

[minsmarine]

WTF!!!!

no freedom of speech in singapore afterall!!!!

ChannelNewsAsia doesn't present Singapore

So they have their own way to do so

In other mean, THEY NEED RICE BOWL FOR TOMORROW LAR

[ervine]

actually I don't really mind him getting 20k per month as income, i suppose his job should be rather taxing.. I don't mind him flying first class or whatever or his gold taps, etc etc etc....

but 12 mth bonus???? Who the HECK gets 12 mths??? I know of tons of people who didn't even get 1 month let alone 12!!...

and if it wasn't him who authorised the bonus, i.e. it was the board of directors, then we should all look into how much each of them recieved as well... later everyone in the board took home 12 mth bonus how?

To think that I still donate $6 a mth even though my bank account has plummented below $20 multiple times over the past 2-3yrs....

[ervine]

Many in the petition are now shifting their target at Mrs Goh for her "peanut" comments.

yes, i was pretty angered by that particular word too...

[minsmarine]

Peanut in gold plate ?

Hmm I WANT, not peanut but gold plate

[ozy]

Hey the petition forum is dead. All the posts seems to have disappeared !!!

[Reefaholic]

Extract from The Electric New Paper online.

I KNOW you are upset and want to stop donating to NKF. But if you do, then I might die.

This was the desperate plea from a young woman whose both kidneys have failed.

But when Miss Rahamah Shariff (right) learnt that Mr T T Durai earned about $25,000 a month, she was speechless.

Her security guard father takes home $1,200 a month while her mother makes $600 a month as a cleaner.

With two younger brothers who are not working, the 21-year-old said it was very hard to cope. That was when the NKF helped by subsidising the dialysis treatment substantially.

From having to pay over $1,740 a month for the treatment, she now only pays $240 a month.

'Without NKF's help, I won't be able to afford the treatment,' she said in Malay.

It's been an agonising journey for Miss Rahamah since both her kidneys failed in 1999.

For six years, she has been chained to her dialysis machine in her room for 14 hours at a stretch, while a tube is inserted into a catheter implanted on the left side of her abdomen.

Toxins are then flushed out of her kidneys.

'I was in and out of the hospital over 20 times because of infections.'

While she says she's used to the confined lifestyle, the numbed expression told a different story.

The former ITE Bishan student worked for a brief period as a production operator in early 2003 and as a telemarketer before that.

However, she had a bad fall two years ago, tore the tendons in her knee and had to stop working.

She said she's grateful to the NKF for its help and begs Singaporeans to continue donating to the organisation.

However, she was shocked when she heard how much Mr Durai makes a month.

Her empathy for the man she respected and had met on several occasions turned into anger.

'If he makes so much, why doesn't NKF just subsidise the entire amount? Why do I still have to pay $240?'

She said her mother sometimes needed to borrow money from relatives to settle the extra amount needed.

But her anger soon changed to worry.

'Whatever the case is with Mr Durai, the NKF has many earnest and sincere people who work very hard to help people like me stay alive.

'Please don't stop donating. Just think of me and donate.'

Well, all i can said to these people, "dont worry NKF has reserves for more than 30yrs" Ask Durai to donate parts of his salary to you. or ask Mrs G to give you a packet of "peanuts".

This is what misuse of fund lead to.

[cyclop]

CNA has shut out the old posts because it is getting too "hot" and people are saying things that are too sensitive. CNA is accountable for all posts in their forum page and are liable to be "sued" again.

[cyclop]

We would also like to reiterate that you refrain from making any comments that are potentially unlawful, harassing, defamatory, abusive, threatening, harmful, obscene, profane, sexually oriented or racially and religiously offensive. Community and political topics will be monitored closely and will be deleted if deemed inappropriate.

Postings in Community, In The News and World Issues will be moderated due to the sensitivity of the issues discussed. And inactive topics in these Forums as well as Market Talk, will be removed after 14 days. All others will be taken out after a month.

The above was taken from CNA forum page.

[Chris]

The invisible force is here. Damage control has begun. Mind cleancing process in progress.

More will be heard these few days....especially today!

[djviper]

y all scared of him???? i wanna curse him leh.... ask Durain sue me ... i call my lawyer...

didn't know CNA ham cheese lol

[absolut_vodka]

at the end of the day... how much can they 'clean' out??? Any idea how many forums there are out there?? the damage is done and unless they (the NKF mgt) stands out and do the right thing, i don't think any amount of 'cleaning' out will do!

and nope, the petition site is there... almost 20K signatures when i last visited a couple of minutes ago!

[hotlemond]

can we check if our posted thread has IP logged?

If this gets any worse, they will probably enhance thier "cleaning out" measures by obtaining a Court Order to come over and nuke our tank with excessive kalkwasser paste

..ok, i'll shut up.

[Chris]

Yo, you make me feel like an aptisia.

Now the situation is like a tank with 20,000 aptisia and multiplying rapidly.

[limbssg]

Tonight is NKF Cancer Show #3 风雨同舟献真心 and Mediaco~p is doing some damage control, televising patients seeking dialysis treaments and saying that they're grateful to NKF for helping them. Otherwise, tonight's fund raising then money not enough. And let's see what stories NKF will fabricate in the next couple of days....

As usual, SG will not have any freedom of speech, forums like Young PAP, CNA, Straits Times Interactive are heavily moderated. Post at HERE if u want to be heard.

[kelstorm]

wun be watch the stupid show anyway.. have not watch it for yrs..

btw, wat site is it?? i get redirected to some site seeking thank u cards.. if it was to thank some joker with 12 mths bonus, i would rather throw the keyboard away than to bother typing words of encouragement.. afterall, i dun have a golden tap to wash my hands of such grease later.

[jc85]

Its the infamous sammyboy coffee shop forum.

Why isn't the relevant authority step in?

Why isn't the commercial crime department looking into his dealing with this Ms. Malida (whatever u spell her name) and her company?

There are many many questions left unanswered.

JC

[qazwer]

I'll watch before the show ends. and see how much they can raise!!!!

[Dazza]

Anyone seen this blog?

http://rockson.blogspot.com/2005/07/nkf-bo...nths-bonus.html

Just take it as fun read lah.

[XPeriment 626]

Why isn't the relevant authority step in?

Why isn't the commercial crime department looking into his dealing with this Ms. Malida (whatever u spell her name) and her company?

There are many many questions left unanswered.

JC

please, every since a certain out-of-touch-with-non-rich-people woman opened her mouth and said $600,000 is peanuts, it has all become politically sensitive. People in Govt might want to take action but kena sabo because of stupid remark, now have to tread carefully to not make her look stupider than she already make herself look.

[limbssg]

btw, wat site is it?? i get redirected to some site seeking thank u cards..

try this URL