Red Cross and donations

Red Cross reported an employee who pocketed $90,000. The Commission of Charities asked Red Cross to stop collecting actively soliciting of donations. In my view, the Commissioner has been over-reacting to this situation.

For a large organisation, the risk of embezzlement by an employee is always present. It is not possible to have perfect loss prevention - unless the requirements are made rigorous and impractical. In some cases, the correct response is taken when a loss occurs, i.e. loss reduction measure. The Red Cross has taken this measure to report to the Police and the Commissioner of Charities.

However, the mindset of the bureaucrat under the Singapore system is:

1. I need to have a perfect KPI, to earn a bonus and promotion.
2. Any mistake will damage my KPI
3. I close my eyes and ears - so that I do not have to report any shortcoming
4. If a problem occurs, I will try to find another agency to be responsible
5. If the problem is in my turf, I will find the perfect system (i.e. doesn't matter if the cure is worse than the pain).

(I removed my previous message about the corrupt manager, as I quoted the agency - sorry).

Tan Kin Lian