Strengthening governance and management of temples

Question

Mr Murali Pillai: To ask the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth whether the Hindu Endowments Board (“Board”) has undertaken a review of the case involving the alleged misappropriation and pawning of gold ceremonial jewellery between 2016 and 2020 with an aggregate pawn value amounting to more than $2 million at an endowment under its administration by its employee with a view to identify any shortcoming that led to the incident arising and steps to be taken to prevent such a situation from happening in the future at all its endowments.

Response

Mr Edwin Tong, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth & Second Minister for Law:

1. Mr Speaker Sir, the alleged misappropriation and pawning of gold ceremonial jewellery, happened at the Sri Mariamman Temple (SMT), one of the four Hindu temples managed by the Hindu Endowments Board (HEB). The former Chief Priest of SMT, Mr Kandasamy Senapathi, has been charged in Court for offences under the Penal Code and the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act. The case is presently before the Courts and I will not go into the specific details of this case. However, I will share the follow up actions that have been taken since the discovery of this case.

2. The HEB has taken  the matter very seriously and has conducted routine audits of all four of its temple endowments, including the SMT, to ensure that all ceremonial jewellery is properly accounted for. HEB has undertaken a review of this case following the incident and has  commissioned a special audit of gold inventories in all of its temples to ensure that all ceremonial jewellery has been accounted for. No other irregularities were discovered.

3. HEB has since also worked closely with the Commissioner of Charities,the COC, to review and strengthen its governance and internal controls to ensure proper safekeeping and management of gold items. In particular, HEB is improving the gold movement registers to track all movements of gold items within the temples. The Temple Management Committees will also tighten up oversight of all the gold inventories in their respective temples. HEB will also conduct more audits each year, including unannounced audits.

4. HEB will continue to work with each of its Temple Management Committees to prevent abuse, and mitigate circumvention of governance controls. HEB, in collaboration with COC, will also be sharing the lessons from this episode and best practices learnt with other Hindu temple charities so that all temples can do its part to continue to improve the management of its temples.