Donated money should not be misspent

After 15-year-old Yan Sen saved five people through the donation of his organs after his death, the local school asked students' parents and staff members to donate money for his poverty-stricken family, as Yan's sister was a recipient of one of his kidneys. However, the larger part of the money was transferred to a local State-run foundation instead of going to his family. That is both immoral and illegal, said a column in Beijing News (excerpts below).

If the People's Daily had not investigated, Yan Sen's family, in Liaocheng, Shandong province, might never know that the students and teachers donated 310,000 yuan ($50,500) for them. They were only given 60,000 yuan, while the rest was transferred to a local State-run charity federation.

The case is not alone. There are too many reports about State-run charity agencies misspending donations against the donors' will. In some cases, only 10 percent of the money goes to the hands that need it.

Worse than dealing money against the donors' will, the charity federation and the school refused to return the money after the case was revealed. A staff member of the federation even coldly said, "Once the money enters our foundation it will never come out again." Neither the school nor the federation care about the fact the sister of the deceased boy is seriously ill and needed the money for treatment. This is against basic morality and brings them both shame.

The school and the federation might have also broken the law as well as the moral code. The former transferred a sum of money that did not belong to it, while the latter accepted the money without confirming its legal owner. Therefore it is the legal duty of the charitable federation to return the money.