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a translated excerpt of what happened in the courtroom show's just exactly how dark and conniving the organisation is
as stated in front of the judge, NKF has $ 262'000'000 in reserves. now NKF collects $24.4mil from their patients and spents $31.6mil on their patient. this means that they spend $7.1 million a year on their patients. so therefore their reserves will last for about THIRTY to FOURTY years should there be no more donations.
what was also revealed during court proceedings was that during 9th April '04, where NKF declared that their reserve will only last for 3 years was INDEED a LIE! furthermore, NKF puts in money during their donation drives. mr durai tried to argue that the reserves will have to spent during their yearly activities, and therefore it would not last 30 years. however when grilled on by Senior Cousel Davinder Singh (henceforth known as lawyer), mr dulai admitted that without any more donation drives or any activities, the reserves will last 30 to 40 years.
when further pressed by the lawyer "mr dulai, what was the intention behind to publish and emphasised on a INCORRECT information? what was the exact intention? has it got anything to do with the more donations poured in, the more bonus you will get" mr durai avoided the question saying he worked for the sake of NKF and their patients.
what was also revealed was the Mr dulai took home $ 1'800'000 dollars for the past 3 years of work and that his bonus for 2004 was 12 bloody months
Mr Durai also admitted that NKF provides EIGHT cars. of which the road tax was all paid for by our kind donations. upon further questioning mr dulai also admitted that HIS SERVICING AND ROAD TAX was also paid for with our kind donations
however mr durai felt that a $990 tap was inexpensive for a family whose income is $1000 a month
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Lawyer: "we know that your payslip is $60'000 a year, which is why you felt that a $990 tap is inexpensive. but would you tell us, for a citizen who's income is $1000-$2000 a month, would this $990 tap be expensive"
Mr Durai: "He might think that it is expensive"
Lawyer: "he might? please tell the truth"
Mr Durai: "I can't speak for him. This depends on the structure of the contruction, the usage of the tap...."
Lawyer: "a person living in a 1, 2, 3 room flat with montly income of $1000, $2000, $3000, will he find a $1000 tap expensive, even with 10% discount?"
Mr Durai: "maybe, yes"
Lawyer: "is that a yes or a no"
Mr Durai: "if he is educated and knows the usage of a tap, he won't find it expensive"
now we all know how mr durai thinks. firstly he thinks those of us living in flats are uneducated, secondly he believes family that has difficulty putting 3 meals to a table will find a $990 tap inexpensive if they're educated and knows the purpose of a tap. interesting
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now further into the interrogation of the 1st class flights that mr durai is accustomed to. Mr Durai's travel perks also came under scrutiny.
Not only had the NKF maintained consistently - as recently as in the April 19 article - that none of its executives flew first class, it had threatened to sue people who said Mr Durai did so.
At least two people have had to apologise publicly and pay damages and costs for saying they had seen Mr Durai travel first class, as the NKF said this implied he was wasting donors' funds.
Under questioning, he admitted he had flown first class on some airlines. His explanation: The NKF board allowed this as long as he did not bust the Singapore Airlines business-class rate.
Mr Singh countered: 'Isn't it your duty as a trustee of people's monies to make sure that you get best value on a business-class seat instead of deploying this clever tactic... using it for first class on another plane?'
Mr Durai replied: 'This is a decision made by the board. I used the entitlement.' The entitlement, he added, kicked in only in the past two years. Previously, when he flew first class, he had paid the difference out of his own pocket, he maintained.
Mr Singh noted that although he now flew first class, Mr Durai did not correct his chairman Richard Yong's assertion in the April 19 article that 'there is no such thing as first-class travel'.
'The reason you hide the truth is because you know that that is the wrong thing to do, using people's money, and you know that is mismanagement of donations.'
Mr Durai was asked if he should now 'do the right thing' by the two individuals who had paid him damages and costs for saying what he had now admitted in court. He said no, sticking to his claim that at that time, he did not travel first class using NKF funds and when he did so, he paid the difference himself.
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The hearing yesterday was delayed by the NKF's application for special damages of $3.24 million, which it claimed was what it lost in donations following the publication of the article. Justice Tan Lee Meng threw out the application and ordered the NKF to pay SPH's legal cost for its last-minute move.
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Also a very interesting thing to note was Mr Durai's amazing belief that a family living in a 1 room flat will be able to sit in a first class seat to travel. hrmmm
Lawyer: "as the trusted personnel who is suppose to handle the public monies with care, are u suppose to ensure that you get the best value for money air tickets"
Durai: "yes"
Lawyer: "when you fly by business class, why did you need the experience of flying by business class?"
Durai: "the perks were permitted by the board...."
Judge: "that is not the question of Senior Counsel Davinder Singh"
Lawyer: "you used the donation of a man living in a 1 room flat, who might have problems putting 3 meals on his table"
Durai: "yes"
Lawyer: "do you think it is possible for such a man to ever see what it is like to be in a first class seat?"
Durai: "i'm not sure"
WOW he is not sure. hrmm very interesting nugget of information
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[taken from dominicsoon.com]
Using numbers from the NKF website, I calculated that 55% of expenditures actually go to charitable programs while about a fifth are swallowed up by operating costs including, by the way, Mr Durai’s salary. (See Figure 1.) This is laughable compared to the 95% of the American Kidney Fund (AKF) which has similar revenues (roughly S$86 million.)
Figure 1: The NKF - Internationally Competitive?
Click on image to expand
Source: http://www.charitynavigator.org/
But wait - in the fiscal year of 2003, the AKF actually ran a deficit ? that is, it spent more money than it received. Perhaps the NKF strategy of saving around 34% of its revenues is a sound one? I constructed an alternative scenario, supposing that the AKF saved 34% of its revenue and took this out of its program expenses, reducing them by around US$20 million. The share of expenditure on charitable programs hardly budged (it fell to 93%) because their administration costs were so small to begin with.
The NKF is also not particularly efficient at revenue generation, despite its high profile activities:
Table 1: Fund-Raising Activities to Donations Ratio in 2003
Includes public relations expenditures
Organization Amount raised per dollar
NKF S$3.93
SPCA S$14.54
Kidney Dialysis Foundation S$5.87
American Kidney Fund US$22.95
Source: Various company websites. All are local charities except the American Kidney Fund.
Two out of every three Singaporeans donate to the NKF. After the recent scandal, that number is going to fall. Hopefully that will translate into more resources for other worthier, more efficient organizations, such as the Kidney Dialysis Foundation, a smaller outfit in the middle of Kreta Ayer which has revenues about a twentieth of the NKF. In case you’re interested in what their expenses look like, here’s the graph.
Figure 2: Figure 2: Kidney Dialysis Foundation - Expenses
Source: http://www.kdf.org.sg
Part of a longer work in progress. All errors are mine and unintentional.
[ends here]
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of cos now we must all sign the petition to remove mr durai and hopefully more transperency in NKF and how they misappropiate our funds, you can sign the petition hereor you can goto http://www.petitiononline.com/nkfs/petition-sign.html? to have mr durai remove.
but of course if you want to see more of NKF flying SQ business class or the equivalent or driving 8 cars, and using your money to service and pay the road tax of his private car used by his wife of would love for your money to go to his 12 month bonus, or that the fact that NKF purposely OVERSTATED their number of patients on 3 occasions (remember that there was the childrens fund where it was 3000 over patients, there's actually less than 2000, NKF itself tends to only 3000 over patients but they have 1000 over staff and they pay VERY well, over $9 per hour for a person who takes your pulse during your free medical examination after which they force you to donate money) remember the hotline
1900 112 6868 for 1 call
1900 112 6833 for 3 calls
1900 112 6855 for 5 calls and 10 CHANCES TO WIN IN A LUCKY DRAW
1900 112 6888 FOR 8 CALLS AND 20 CHANCES TO WIN IN THE AMAZING LUCKY DRAW!!!!
p/s the information above are as accurate as my translation, information are taken off several newspaper, including ST's website stated below, and www.dominicsoon.com
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some very interesting links to keep you busy
when i grow up,i wanna be NKF's CEO
Oikonk - In Defense
more dirt on day 2
tales from chambana NKF - a personal view
the mail order bride - would you still donate?
today's reader open letter to NKF
dominic soon's detailed analysis of NKF, KDF and other's organisation
of cos our own ST's report on MR Durai
mr brown
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