National Kidney Foundation Case Study

--- INTRODUCTION ---
National Kidney Foundation (NKF) is a non profit foundation, set up with the aim of providing dialysis and rehabilitation to kidney failure patients at affordable rates.

Since it’s inception in 1969 by a nephrologist named Dr. Khoo Oon Teik, the organisation grew constantly from strength to strength, constantly expanding it’s operations and boundaries. However, starting from the late 1990s, it started facing a number of issues, and came under a lot of public scrutiny. These issues received a lot of attention from the media, and were noticed by the public too, causing negative publicity for NKF. The main issues faced were:

a. Misappropriation of funds: In 2004, an article was published in the ‘Straits Times’, in which NKF’s Chief executive Officer, T.T. Durai was accused of overspending NKF’s funds, which were meant for helping needy patients. In response to this Durai filed a defamation suit against Singapore Press Holdings. During the hearing, various truths regarding Durai’s lifestyle and over-spending were revealed. The various facts revealed included :
i. Durai

Lack of enforcement of internal laws: It is crucial for every organisation to have systems of internal governance that determines the overall strategic direction and to balance conflicting interests that may arise. In helping to establish an effective internal governance structure, the board members are responsible for setting missions and aims that take into account stakeholder interests, develop comprehensive policies and appointing a committee of top-level personnel to execute these policies. However, in NKF’s case, there was a lack of policy enforcements within the internal governance structure, which led to various problems. A review of NKF’s Executive Committee (EC)’s meeting minutes revealed that the EC members usually approved all proposals without any collective decision making, since they believed that all proposal’s were made in the foundation’s best