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SINGAPORE – A man disqualified as a Hindu temple secretary for being convicted of crimes involving elements of dishonesty has been fined $ 7,000 in court for continuing to perform the role for more than a year.
Ratha Krishnan Selvakumar, 65, pleaded guilty on Thursday (November 19) to one charge of serving as a board member of a charity despite being disqualified.
He was a key board member of the Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple, a registered charity located on Serangoon Road that the Commissioner of Charities (COC) in 2018 found to have been mismanaged.
On May 9, 2017, Selvakumar was convicted of 10 crimes and fined $ 80,000.
He had inflated the monthly salary of several foreign workers, whom he employed in a company he owned, by applying to the Ministry of Manpower for their work passes.
Under the Charities Act, anyone who has been previously convicted of crimes such as fraud, corruption, bribery, and deception is disqualified from acting as a board member, key officer, or trustee of any charity.
Selvakumar, who was appointed the temple’s secretary in 2011, is believed to be the first person to be prosecuted for the crime since the law was amended in 2018.
A member of the temple’s governing board, he oversaw its day-to-day operations and was also one of three people authorized to conduct financial transactions on behalf of the temple.
After his conviction in 2017, Selvakumar continued to serve as the temple’s secretary and was even paid $ 10,450 monthly as of July 2017.
His tenure ended on April 30, 2018, when the COC removed key members of the temple’s board of directors, including Selvakumar, from their positions after an eight-month investigation uncovered “serious mismanagement” in the way that their money was being managed.
In a statement issued at the time, the Commissioner noted that an investigation found a “grave lack of care and prudence” on the part of key board members as custodians of the temple’s charitable assets between January 2011 and July 2014, with internal controls almost “non-existent”.
Such behavior had put the temple’s funds and assets at risk.
The investigation found many cases where the payments made by the temple were not properly substantiated with sufficient supporting documents.
These payments exceeded $ 500,000.
The Commissioner also appointed three additional board members to the temple administration to establish proper governance and internal controls.
They are Mr. Shekaran K. Krishnan, Partner at Ernst & Young, Mr. Ram an Rajakanth, CEO of Rainbow Across Borders and Mr. Baskaran Ambikapathy, Financial Controller.
A spokesman for the Hindu Endowments Board had said at the time that the board assisted the newly appointed and remaining temple management committee members in every way possible to implement the proper controls.
On Thursday, the court heard that Selvakumar had submitted a letter of resignation from the temple on May 7, 2018.
District Judge Carol Ling also considered a similar charge during sentencing.
For his crime, Selvakumar could have been jailed for up to three years, or a fine of up to $ 10,000, or both.
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