Throughout history, many have taken advantage of the kindness of some, and their love to donate to charitable causes, either seeking a reward or simply wanting to do good.
They took advantage of that to achieve enormous fortunes for themselves, either by exploiting a religious text that allows them to deduct a percentage for themselves, or with the excuse of financing fundraising campaigns for businesses.
They lived an unbelievably extravagant life, owning private planes and luxurious homes with air corridors and river creeks, and yachts, whether they were American clerics, Shiites or Sunnis.
Almost no one knows the truth about the fate of what they collected under this or that label, centuries ago, nor where was it spent, and the only thing that is almost certain is that this money did not contribute, in my opinion, for centuries, to improving the lives of those for whom it was supposed to be collected!
Kuwait is no exception, and the best evidence is the unreasonable number of “charity” associations and committees, which have repeated goals, the majority of which with two influential parties control huge amounts of money!
After publishing my last article on manipulation, which some parties resort to, to raise as much money as possible for philanthropists, I was contacted by a well-known doctor, who told me the following sad story:
An international consultant came to Kuwait for a short visit to provide treatment and medical advice to a number of patients.
Then the specialist asked my doctor friend to find someone willing to donate to build a small dispensary in an African Muslim country, which he visits a few times every year to provide free treatment to patients, because he often performs his operations in a tent.
The friend called one of his well-to-do patients, and explained the matter to him, so he contacted a well-known “charitable body”, and asked it, being one of its major donors, to study the donation request after he presented it with the initial building requirements.
The approval of the Board of Directors came quickly, after performing the noon prayer, and allocating 450,000 dinars for the project.
The Kuwaiti doctor announced to his European friend that the “charitable body” had agreed to bear the cost of construction. The consultant was stunned by the huge sum allocated, and asked to give him a period to ascertain the real cost.
After a while, the “infidel Christian” returned to tell my friend that the cost of the dispensary would not exceed 90,000 dinars, so the rich Kuwaiti philanthropist decided to transfer the amount to the European consultant, so that he, on his part, build the infirmary, that’s what was done in the end! You can deduce what comes to your mind from this story!
The charitable committees, as is the general impression, have huge financial resources, as is the case, for example, with the government “endowment authority”, and these funds require specific financial and investment expertise to be managed and developed, but the majority of these bodies hand over their money to “men” whose only characteristic is that they belong to partisan religious bodies, and often they have no knowledge of the arts and methods of investment, and if any administrative error occurs, they often cover up for each other, and I do not know why the endowment funds are not managed by an investment financial expert, instead of a clergyman, all of his characteristics are that he is one of the “people of God.” ?
Why does the Ministry of Affairs not oblige these associations to select independent members, other than “the people of God,” so that they have a say in what is going on in the boards of directors of these associations?
There are many stories of exploitation, partisan bias, and mismanagement, in the absence of all rules of governance and transparency requirements in most of them!
e-mail: [email protected]
By Ahmad Al-Sarraf
