It ended sooner than I expected

The court battle between NKF and SPH ended just when I was gathering an interest for it. Frankly, I wanted to see it stretch over say, a 10-day period because I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the exchanges between the CEO of NKF, CEO TT Durai and SPH's counsel, Davinder Singh in court.

I wondered what Durai was thinking whenever Davinder Singh revealed one shocking he-probably-knew-it revelation about his company one after and another and how he responded with his not-to-the-point replies.

Like how NKF/Durai

• installed a gold-plated tap that cost $990, an amount that would be deemed expensive by a donor earning $1,000 a month, "even after a 10% discount". The tap was later replaced with a less expensive version that cost less than $300.
• received a 12-month bonus for the year of 2004. 12 month??!! There are people who only receive a half-month bonus!!
• claimed his travel entitlements for SIA business class to be "transferrable for first class on other airlines. And Durai still claimed he was traveling Business class. Yes, Business Class amount of money for First Class...
• overestimated the number of patients NKF was treating
• underestimated the number of years its reserves would be sufficient for its "current costs".

But most absurdly, Davinder revealed that NKF paid for Durai's upkeep of his personal Mercedes Benz that his wife also drove. This is on top of the eight cars, complete with drivers that he, together with five other NKF officers were entitled to.

Can you imagine that the money you parted with at the charity shows was used to pay for the road tax of that Mercedes?!

I wonder whether all that grotesque sum of money goes to these areas:

• the treatment of their 3,000 2,000 kidney patients
• contribution to the NKF Cancer Fund
• maintaining the exaggerated salaries of the VIPs like Durai
• maintaining the upkeep of cars of VIPs like Durai
• paying for "first class air travel on SIA business fares" for VIPS like Durai
• maintaining the decor of their Dialysis Centres like I mentioned in this entry

And now, paying for costs that would be claimed by SPH and its lawyers that have been incurred.

NKF is slapping their own mouths (a Chinese saying). Who asked them to file a suit against SPH, especially when there were no accusations in the report at all?

Durai defended his reason for the suit because "... the offending paragraphs made it look like he was being 'shamed' into replacing the fittings." Duh.

Now that the case is closed, it is high time we returned our focus to the most important people of NKF: the patients. I pity the kidney/cancer patients. Would Singaporeans stop donating because of this scandal? True, NKF's reserves can last 30 to 40 years, but as Faith mentioned, what about inflation and more importantly, new patients? They still need our help.

I pity Mediacorp artistes who have slogged their guts out to perform year in year out for the patients. Oh, I pity Cao Qi Bye Tai (as coined by Potatomus Maximus) for distorting his face to show his agony zealously appealing for more donors by interrupting big-name stars like Adam Cheng. I wonder if he thinks all his efforts may have come to nought...

Shit! I don't think so! In fact, I think he would distort his face even more appeal even more zealously and interrupt big-name stars even more to get the donations reaching sky-high levels. Oh no, oh no!

In any case, I applaud the Mediacorp artistes for their efforts. Star appeal really does wonders to donation efforts. The point is, instead of us donors cutting off donations to NKF, NKF should instead adopt a more transparent approach to the financials of the company. NKF is after all, not a private listed company. It relies a lot from the funds of their donors. That makes us, donors, "shareholders" of the company. So, shouldn't NKF be accountable to their shareholders?

In fact, as I am writing this, I hear news reports on radio about 120 people already withdrawn from this monthly donation scheme of NKF (their donations are deducted from their bank accounts automatically).

A typical response to such a situation.

I am so pissed off with NKF.