Letter from... Singapore

A vicious legal battle, an outpouring of public anger, and, finally, an announcement of a high-level police probe into “unusual transactions”: the turmoil that has struck Singapore’s largest charity in recent months has all the elements of a John Grisham thriller. However, the events that have rocked the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) are not the stuff of popular fiction, but are a gritty, real-life tale of high emotion and, possibly, low dealings in a country better known for doing things by the book. And no one knows yet how the story will be concluded.

Even before the drama, the NKF stood out from the crowd in Singapore. Its fund-raising drives were high-profile and attracted support from many celebrities, who helped raise cash to support its nationwide dialysis programme. Patients, currently about 1,800 of them, receive discounted treatment at its 21 centres. Last year, half a million Singaporeans donated to the NKF, a remarkable figure in a tiny but wealthy country that has a population of just 3.3m.

The flashpoint came in the form of a lawsuit. TT Durai, the now former head of the NKF, sued the main English-language paper for defamation after it reported he had had a gold-plated tap installed in his office bathroom. On the witness stand for two days in July, Durai was on the receiving end of withering questioning from Davinder Singh, counsel for The Straits Times, and one of the country’s most respected - and feared - legal minds.

After the barrage, Durai withdrew the lawsuit. But before he did so, he had made a string of admissions from the witness box that stoked an unprecedented wave of public anger. Chief among the revelations were details of his S$600,000 (£200,000) annual pay, and seemingly lavish perks of office, including first-class flights. There were also indications Durai had understated the NKF’s reserves.

As anger mounted, tens of thousands signed an on-line petition calling for the NKF to come clean about its books, and for Durai to be replaced. His resignation, and that of the entire board, was brokered by Health Minister, Khaw Boon Wan, just days later. In Parliament, Khaw said the public felt “misled, betrayed and deceived” by the unusual affair, and announced that KPMG had been called in by the NKF’s new interim board to go over the accounts.

“Have donations been wasted on inappropriate things? Were charitable funds used lavishly or improperly? Have there been lapses in judgment? Were any funds misappropriated? If so, could these lapses have been detected earlier?” Khaw asked, pledging that the results of the investigation will be made public.

A month later and the NKF’s woes deepened. The group - which has suspended fund-raising and laid off 92 of its 840-strong staff - said the Commercial Affairs Department had been called in to go over “certain matters of grave concern”. Separately, Khaw said that the probe by the specialist police unit that tackles white-collar crime was focusing on “unusual transactions”, but would not be drawn further. PricewaterhouseCoopers, which has done the NKF books since 1999, told accounting & business it was “assisting CAD with its investigations”.

Thousands of Singaporeans - the local accounting profession in particular - are now waiting to see what, if anything, KPMG and the police will unearth. Durai - who’s neither been arrested nor charged - has been keeping out of public view, but has reportedly had his passport confiscated by the authorities.

And, in an unusual disclosure, Health Minister Khaw revealed that Durai’s teenage daughter had e-mailed the prime minister during the uproar, asking Lee Hsien Loong to help restore her father’s “reputation and honour” if no wrongdoing was found. The youngster will soon get her answer.

Jake Lloyd-Smith is a freelance journalist based in Singapore. He works regularly for the Financial Times, TIME Magazine and the London Evening Standard.