Officials sound caution on charities
By Tonny Chan (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-01-05 01:14

The Social Welfare Department (SWD) yesterday urged the public to use caution when making donations for disaster victims, referring one local fund-raiser to the police for investigation.

The SWD would not identify the fund-raiser, but said the organizer had been collecting cash donations in public areas without a licence.

A spokesman said the case was brought to their attention by a citizen who was concerned about the legality of the fund-raising activity in question. Failing to confirm the fund-raiser's identity, the SWD yesterday called in the police.

The spokesman said that since the earthquake and tsunami rocked the region more than a week ago, approval had been given to more than 50 fund-raisers.

"We also wish to make use of this opportunity to call on the public to consider carefully a fund-raiser's reputation and purpose before making a donation. If suspicious, they can ask to see the permit issued by the SWD," the spokesman said.

Under the law, any organization collecting cash donations in public areas have to apply to the SWD for a licence. But activities are not subject to monitoring if the fund-raisers do not collect cash or the collection takes place in a private place.

Police said they were investigating the case and had no further comment at this stage.

This is the second reported police investigation into a fund-raising incident related to the tsunami disaster. On Sunday, it found fake Oxfam fund-raising emails being sent to ask recipients to make donations to a bank account in Cyprus.

A police spokesman said the Commercial Crime Bureau was still investigating this and no person had been arrested so far.

The case was discovered when an email that used a press release from Oxfam and other relief organizations was received by a friend of Oxfam.

Oxfam Hong Kong has denied it is associated with the appeal and warned people to be aware of it.

In another development, Deputy Secretary for Security Michael Wong in the Hong Kong SAR government said the authorities planned to scale down their presence in Thailand after the local situation stabilized. Some members of the task force, who have concentrated most of their activities in Thailand, would return to Hong Kong as early as today.

Until now, the task force has manned help desks at the airport in Bangkok, Phuket and the aid centre 24 hours a day and stationed personnel at six local hospitals.

With more Hong Kong residents discharged from the hospitals and returning to the SAR, it is time to review whether or not it is necessary to maintain a full team in the areas, Wong said.

He said that as fewer Hong Kong residents were turning up at help desks these days, they would keep them open at busy hours only instead of 24 hours a day. They would also station personnel at hospitals with Hong Kong residents and leave contact information with other hospitals.

"We wish to assure people that all essential services will be maintained," Wong said of the task force.

The government Disaster Relief Fund released HK$3.5 million to the Red Cross for their operation in Sri Lanka, raising the total to HK$17.5 million to relief organizations. World Vision and Oxfam have each received HK$7 million.

Wong said two tons of relief materials donated by the SAR were already with Thailand and the government was prepared to discuss further requests from affected countries.

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