Ren Ci's former CEO Ming Yi says he did not know that his aide had used charity funds for personal reasons. -- ST PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW
WHEN Ernst and Young auditors moved in to check Ren Ci Hospital's finances in late 2006, they could not reconcile two loans made to Mandala Buddhist Cultural Centre.
Both sums - for $300,000 and $50,000 - were on Ren Ci's books, but not on Mandala's.
'I took pay cuts too'
HIS monthly salary grew from more than $5,000 in 1996 to about $20,000 in 2001. But he took pay cuts several times too, Ming Yi told the court.
From November 2002 to October 2003, he cut his own salary from about $20,000 a month to about $15,000, because the hospital was running a deficit at the time. Ming Yi said he had to lend $300,000 of his own money to Ren Ci.
On Wednesday, Buddhist monk Ming Yi, former chief executive of the charitable hospital, said: 'I was very worried because I did not know what had happened.'
He said he had told many people that he would be responsible for any transactions between Ren Ci and Mandala and Bodhicherie. 'So I was very worried,' he added.
Mandala is a shop selling Buddhist artefacts while Bodhicherie is a vegetarian food business. Both are affiliated to Ren Ci.
The monk put down the first loan of $300,000 to an administrative error and added that the money was returned.
As for the $50,000, it involved his aide Raymond Yeung, as he was responsible for running Mandala, said Ming Yi.
The $50,000 loan is at the heart of the criminal trial now into its ninth day. Ming Yi has been accused of making an unauthorised loan to Yeung, which both later tried to cover up.
On the whole of Tuesday, his first day on the stand, Ming Yi told his life story, breaking down many times.
At the end of the day, District Judge Toh Yung Cheong suggested that he confine himself to broad points rather than go into so much detail.
Read the full story in Thursday's edition of The Straits Times.
