3 Charities de-registered by Commissioner of Charities

The Commissioner of Charities (COC) exercising it powers under new regulations which came in force 1 May on charity registration, public fund-raising appeals and large charities, has de-registered three charities.

These are the Children of Singapore Foundation, Children’s Lukaemia Foundation Limited, and Club Sunshine Limited (previously known as Kids-In-Distress Foundation Limited).

According to a news release by the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS), the COC has been monitoring the three de-registered charities since October 2006 and the COC has found serious irregularities and suspicious transactions in the administration of the charities. The COC has also viewed the intentions of the charities to be not exclusively charitable and has prohibited the three groups from carrying out any public fund-raising appeals. The three charities were set up by the same person, Mr Rajendren Rajamani. The office of the COC has made a police report against Mr Rajendren for further investigation.

Another organisation, the Kidney Fund Organisation (KFO), will not be granted charity status by the COC. The KFO was set up as a society and applied for charity status with intentions to provide financial assistance to kidney patients and other needy patients with chronic illnesses in need of treatment. The COC however felt, after careful scrutiny, that the organisation's intentions were not exclusively charitable as the bulk of donations, amounting to some $110,000 in 2006, did not benefit charitable causes.

It was found that only a small fraction of donations received were disbursed to a few beneficiaries, while some 75 percent of the donations were used to pay for the engagement of a commercial fund-raising company, Amanah Fitrah. The company is owned by KFO's Vice-President who is married to the KFO President, while a trustee of KFO is also an employee of the commercial fund-raising company.

Such a close relationship has posed a serious conflict of interest and the COC has decided to prohibit the Kidney Fund Organisation from any public fund-raising with effect from 3 May 2007.