MOM will not press charges against NKF

Friday, April 21, 2006
Ansley Ng
ansley@newstoday.com.sg

THE National Kidney Foundation (NKF) won't be charged for illegally hiring foreign nationals under the charge of former chief executive T T Durai.

Yesterday, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said though there is enough evidence to file charges against the NKF for "making false declarations", it will issue the charity a "stern warning" instead. Explaining the decision, the MOM said: "The organisation is now reconstituted and the cost of answering the charges and paying the fines will have to be borne out of donor funds."

So the Attorney-General's Chambers decided not to press criminal charges against specific persons or key officers within the organisation. The MOM did not name those they thought were responsible.

Anyone convicted of violating the Employment of Foreign Workers Act could face a maximum jail term of up to six months or a fine of up to $5,000, or both. The case is traced back to 2002 and 2004, when the old NKF applied for employment passes for workers in an IT firm to install new software in the NKF. Some of the applications were rejected.

For those rejected, the charity re-applied for them to be issued with training visit passes instead. Once approved, they worked in the charity under the guise of being interns or trainees. These findings were documented in a report by KPMG.

This development came days after Durai and former senior NKF officials — Matilda Chua, Richard Yong and Loo Say San — were hauled to court to face criminal charges.