Friday, July 15, 2005
NKF's Board and its CEO TT Durai to step down
By S. Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia
SINGAPORE : The National Kidney Foundation Board and its CEO, Mr TT Durai, have resigned.
Over the next few days, the Government will appoint an interim Board to ensure continuous operation of NKF's various dialysis centres.
It will also work on medium term tasks, including forming a new Board, appointing a new CEO, reviewing accounting practices, funding needs, and pricing and subsidy policies.
Pending completion of these reviews, the NKF will suspend all active fund-raising activities.
This follows the request of the NKF Board for the Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan's assistance to help restore public confidence.
And they offered to resign in order to give Mr Khaw a free hand on this.
They also asked that he help reconstitute a new Board and appoint a new CEO.
A Health Ministry statement said, in the interest of the dialysis patients and the NKF, Mr Khaw had agreed to help in this effort.
He stressed two immediate priorities: care for NKF dialysis patients should not be disrupted in any way and shattered public confidence must be restored.
At a news conference later, Mr Khaw stressed that he was not in favour of destroying an organisation in order to rebuild it unless it was a rotten one.
He said the NKF was not rotten to the core and a lot of good work had been done.
As such, his immediate priority is to build on the organisation's strong points.
And he will be working hard to find a new Chairman, hopefully, even by Friday.
Following the announcement, Mrs Goh Chok Tong also decided to relinquish her position as Patron.
This is to give the NKF a fresh start and enable a new Board to be appointed.
In a statement, Mrs Goh said this had been a sad and unfortunate episode.
But she hopes that Singaporeans will continue to support the NKF's efforts to help kidney failure patients and their families. - CNA/de
SINGAPORE : The National Kidney Foundation Board and its CEO, Mr TT Durai, have resigned.
Over the next few days, the Government will appoint an interim Board to ensure continuous operation of NKF's various dialysis centres.
It will also work on medium term tasks, including forming a new Board, appointing a new CEO, reviewing accounting practices, funding needs, and pricing and subsidy policies.
Pending completion of these reviews, the NKF will suspend all active fund-raising activities.
This follows the request of the NKF Board for the Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan's assistance to help restore public confidence.
And they offered to resign in order to give Mr Khaw a free hand on this.
They also asked that he help reconstitute a new Board and appoint a new CEO.
A Health Ministry statement said, in the interest of the dialysis patients and the NKF, Mr Khaw had agreed to help in this effort.
He stressed two immediate priorities: care for NKF dialysis patients should not be disrupted in any way and shattered public confidence must be restored.
At a news conference later, Mr Khaw stressed that he was not in favour of destroying an organisation in order to rebuild it unless it was a rotten one.
He said the NKF was not rotten to the core and a lot of good work had been done.
As such, his immediate priority is to build on the organisation's strong points.
And he will be working hard to find a new Chairman, hopefully, even by Friday.
Following the announcement, Mrs Goh Chok Tong also decided to relinquish her position as Patron.
This is to give the NKF a fresh start and enable a new Board to be appointed.
In a statement, Mrs Goh said this had been a sad and unfortunate episode.
But she hopes that Singaporeans will continue to support the NKF's efforts to help kidney failure patients and their families. - CNA/de
