A MATTER OF TRUST: The Malaysian government plans to bar welfare organisations from using third parties to seek donations. -- BT FILE PHOTO

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The pastor said yes to him immediately, simply because he was finding it difficult to balance the budget for the private home which houses about 100 children, what with the soaring prices of groceries and all.

But the stranger's offer came with a catch: He would give only 40 per cent of the money raised to the home, and take the remainder as his commission, said Mr Tan, who is also the associate pastor of the Hope of Glory Centre church in Ampang, near here.

Mr Tan added: 'He even asked for a RM2,000 deposit. He took some pictures of the house and went about soliciting funds from the public.'

The pastor requested that the name of his children's home, which he owns and runs together with his wife Lucy Tan, not be revealed for fear that would-be donors would shun it as a result.

A few weeks after their meeting, the man handed over to Mr Tan two cheques for the home. The cheques bounced a few days later, and Mr Tan never saw the so-called professional fund-raiser again. Several calls to the latter's mobile phone went unanswered.

Stories like Mr Tan's are becoming increasingly common here as opportunists take advantage of Malaysians' generosity to fatten their wallets.

To curb such charity fraud, the Malaysian government plans to bar welfare organisations from using third parties to raise funds from the public.

Deputy Home Affairs Minister Tan Chai Ho told The Straits Times that, to that end, the Societies Act was being amended by the Attorney-General's Chambers.

The proposed amendments are expected to be tabled in Parliament by the end of the year.

Among other things, they require all fund-raising activities to be registered with the government first, and welfare organisations must submit audited financial statements of the donations they get within three months from the last day of collection.

The costs of raising the funds should also not exceed one-twelfth of the money collected from the public.

'We do not mean to make it difficult for these organisations to raise funds. We just want the public to have the confidence that the money they donate will end up where it should,' Datuk Tan said.

Asked what would happen to organisations which had traditionally relied on third parties to solicit public donations on their behalf, Datuk Tan said they just had to get their own members to work harder to raise funds.

A source from the Registrar of Societies here, who declined to be named, told The Straits Times that syndicates could be behind the 'professional fund-raiser' scams.

He added that the fund-raisers had a professional vibe about them. They were smartly dressed, wore name tags and carried folders containing what they called 'supporting documents' for their respective causes.

Unfortunately, Malaysians in the street did not bother to check whether they were genuine fund-raisers or not, said the source.

It was not immediately known how many such shysters preyed on the public in Malaysia, but a few things were clear: They often worked in groups, soliciting donations from coffee shop and restaurant customers. Some moved from house to house, claiming to raise funds for temples or orphanages in other states. Many unsuspecting donors said they had never even heard of such charitable entities.

Still, as Datuk Tan told The Straits Times: 'So far, there have been very few cases of office-bearers in charities misappropriating funds collected.'

Mr Tan told The Straits Times: 'I've learnt my lesson not to rely on others to collect money for you. We do not want the public to lose confidence in where their money is going. We (the foster home) just have to learn to cope better.'

kumhor@sph.com.sg

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