How much money did AWARE new exco spend since 28 March 2009?
May 1st, 2009 | 
Author: From The Informant Network Team
It has been a month since the new exco won the AGM elections of AWARE and while we are still unclear about their goals and vision for AWARE, they are certainly not ashamed to display their spending prowess for all to see.
From the changing of all the locks in the office in one night, reinstalling a new security system and to renting of a hall at Raffles Town Club to give their first press conference, the new ladies in charge have been quite alarmingly profilgate in their spending.
The venue at EGM was initially held at HSR Auditorium in Toa Payoh. What was the amount of deposit forfeited for the cancellation of booking when it was changed to the Singapore EXPO?
A half day use of Singapore EXPO Hall 2 on a weekend could have easily run up to a six figure sum according to friends we spoke to in the industry. The cost is S$50 + GST per pax per event day.
In the event of cancellation after the contract is signed, a progressive cancellation fee of up to 80% of the contractual amount will be levied.
Since the EGM was forced by the police to relocate to Suntec, it is unknown if the cancellation fee still applies.
The new venue at Suntec Exhibition Hall 402 doesn’t come cheap either and will be probably cost between S$20,000 to S$50,000 depending on the number of hours used and if refreshments are provided. Don’t forget this is not inclusive of the cost of engaging an external events organizer – APES communication. (CNA reported that Suntec will be ‘pricer’ without quoting the figures, read here)
AWARE new exco has also engaged Rajah & Tann as Aware’s legal advisers and said lawyers would be present to address questions that arise, including any on ‘matters intended to be transacted, Aware’s Constitution and meeting law and procedure’.
This is the first time AWARE has engaged a law firm to be present during its meetings.
We do not know the identities and numbers of lawyers who will be at present during AWARE’s EGM, but obviously none of them will be doing pro bono for AWARE.
According to inside sources, a Senior Counsel can command up to $300 to $500 dollars a hour for their time, a lawyer with 20 years of experience may cost $200 to $400 a hour. (note: this is a conservative estimate only)
Will the lawyers be representing the entire AWARE or the new exco? Who will be footing the bill? These are pressing questions which must be raised and addressed during the EGM.
Though the cost incurred so far can be defrayed partially or completely by the fees collected lately from the spike in membership, it still doesn’t make economic sense to spend so much money in so short a time when there are cheaper alternatives available.
AWARE is a secular NGO whose funds are derived from a number of sources. As and far as possible, its funds should be managed prudently to serve the interests of the community while keeping its operating expenses to minimum.
The new exco doesn’t inspire confidence from the way it manages AWARE’s finances. As a non-profit organization, we would expect them to pay closer attention to fiscal matters instead of splurging unnecessarily.
AWARE members may like to consider if there are grounds to lodge a complaint to the Registry of Societies for possible misuse of money of the society under provision 19 of the Societies Act (CAP 311).
Posted in Opinion
27 Responses to “How much money did AWARE new exco spend since 28 March 2009?”
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It is win win situation for the new exco. If they lose the elections, they will have depleted the coffers and leave the old guards with nothing. Smart move.
ask the new excos to pay back using their personal finances lah if they lose out. charge them in court for careless spending
Oye!Even the MOE is looking into the Old Guards Comprehensive Sexual Education. Give the newbies a chance!
R u homos or what?
corruption is looming
Like it or not, Aware will be maimed and paralyzed since Jose Lau and her terracotta armies now have interim access to the use of Aware funds. They will try to exhaust and deplete all of them, so that in the event that they get thrown out in the EGM, which is the obvious thing going to happen now, the old guards are are voted in will have no funds to operate and/or launch legal proceedings against them for anything.
I think the old guards should quickly set up a protem committee to raise public funds to help out, seek well-meaning philanthrophist’s help and set up legal department with help from legal council volunteers to look into this matter.
It is important to bring civil proceedings against all of them…Thio Su Mien, Joie Lau, Maureen Ong, Jenica Chua, Charlotte Wong, Irene Yee, and Sally Ang, and the church pastors if necessary.
I am sure there will be people who are prepared to donate money towards this cause.
If you dont, the extremist will come back again. There will be no end to it since the extremists network is too strong and they are always there.
Do you know that if you Google the phrase ‘We Are AWARE’, the first links that turns up in the search is aware.org but titled ‘We Are AWARE’? You have to google We Are Aware.sg in order to get the Old guard’s website. I don’t know how you can set serach parameters for Google, but it seems to be that the new exco is interested in hijacking some of the old guards’ website traffic…
Hi bila,
We are perfectly straight.
We love women.
We do not mind being in the company of gays.
What gays do to each other in private is none of our business.
kaine,
unfortunately, it is unlikely to claim back the funds from this new exco team, because it is considered ‘legal’ for them to tap into this fund. they know it.
we can only watch with disbelieve and draw our own conclusion of what intergrity and shame are about.
however, rest assure that the biggest the amount they have used during their one month stint in AWARE, the more backlash they will get from the public, not necessary legal though.
you can lie to to some of the people some of the time, you can lie to a few of the people most of the time, but you cannot lie to all the people all of the time and get away with it.
people know, people always know.
by then, it will be ‘payback’ time for the new exco, not necessary in monetary means, but their reputations will suffer.
Hi WP,
Just wondering why WP did not publish any detail about the “AWARE COMPREHENSIVE SEXUAL EDUCATION: BASIC INSTRUCTOR GUIDE 2007″?
To Josie and Team….march on for a ” CHANGE” in AWARE and focus on woman issues in Singapore…12,000 unborn babies aborted in Singapore..shocking!!!and the old guard in AWARE should spend more time on educating woman and schools about abortion and save unborn lives lah instead of focusing of promoting gays and lesbian and is OK to screw each other and no babies???…12,000 babies died ..credit to the old guard in AWARE ??..these lives could be save if the old guard promotes such family values and about abortions!…The gays/lesbian have their own platform to speak for themselves and do not need a Woman organisation to speak for them..stay focus on real issues!
As a member of AWARE, we should have the right to review the budget and expenditure. Sadly, I think much of the money that has been raised will be taken up defending the new exco’s position on homosexuality. There is more at stake – Truly concerned about the existing programs where people working in them have either been sacked or resigned – not sure about who will be hired and what criteria is going to be used to hire them. As mentioned in today’s ST – the new office manager belongs to the same church so, I don’t hold high hopes.
A last minute ditch attempt for pro-Josie Lau supporters to hijack WP. Nice. We don’t appreciate it, especially if you don’t know what you’re saying.
you’re right.
it’s better that 12000 unwanted babies are born alive and possibly abandoned or mistreated or not given the love and care they so deserve, instead of being aborted.
those 12000 women should not have been given the right to medically safe abortion; no – they should be forced to go through illegal and dodgy channels if they want to abort their baby, putting both mother and child’s lives at risk. they deserve it after all for (a) having unprotected sex (b) having boyfriends/husbands who don’t want the child (c) getting raped (d) being forced into prostitution.
And yes, it’s old Aware’s fault because they said that sex is fun, but abortion is even more fun, and educated Singaporean women believed them.
#
Archbishop Desmond Tutu of Anglican Church in South Africa who won the Nobel Peace Price in 1994 , has this to say.
In an interview with BBC Radio 4 on 18 November 2007, Tutu accused the church of being obsessed with homosexuality and declared: “If God, as they say, is homophobic, I wouldn’t worship that God.”[77]
Dear readers, if you have the time please read the chapter on church reform in this ,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desmond_Tutu
The COOS is under the Anglican archdiose in Singapore.
Isn’t what Archbishop Desmond Tutu said in 2007 exactly what is happening in COOS which Josie LAu belongs to . The COOS church is obsessed with homosexuality.
We should ask the X tians , is GOD homophobic ??
And to add salt to the wound of COOS, the Anglican Church itself is not in agreement in its ranks about the homosexual issue. Progressive churches in the west like the Anglican Church of England, The North American Anglican church and the South African Anglican Church have a more tolerant view on homosexulality . Read more at
http://schools-wikipedia.org/wp/r/Rowan_Williams.htm
refer to chapter on homosexuality
Just look at how people of responsibility in the Anglican Church in the west frame their arguments with sensible reason, fair logic and thinking. and humility unlike The new aware Exco curt and closed argument type of mentality.
Why the difference you may ask , because in the west like UK and USA , the media will ask very pertinent questions to as to how you defend your views about homosexuality.
If they sense a persoanl view involve they will rip your defence to shreds and force you to say it is purely a persoanl view and should not be applied to society in general.
Society is secular and should so.
Why is it so hard for the New Excos of AWARE with members of COOS to admit to themselves that the old EXCO of Aware did carry out their duties with an awareness that Singapore is a secular place with people from a multi religious background and and even bigger majority of people who are secular in their outlook, they may have a religious view but they keep it to themselves knowing that society in general have a market place of pluralitic views.
What happened inside Aware office a day before the EGM:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvLMdcs_XN0
guarantee funny!
http://ovidiayu.wordpress.com/2009/05/01/messrs-rajah-tann-why-why-why/
I’d like to withdraw my comment made at 2:25pm…turns out that the link leads to a totally different womens’ self-defence organisation also called ‘AWARE’ by total coincidence. My apologies.
_____________________________________________________
wayneworld: Thanks for the humor, mate. Really loved it
Anti-abortion now? More and more of christian agendas are surfacing now. I am getting impressed.
Christians should stop making mothers sound like satan. Which mother will want to go for abortion if they had a choice to keep the foetus? Have any christians considered the family background, the circumstances and medical conditions of these mothers? Rh+ babies born to Rh- mothers, pregnant women living in poverty, pregnant mothers with HIV etc. Never. Everything is just about god’s will. Some christians are living a life too good they only care about themselves and their church. That’s all.
One small fly in the ointment (ie. accepting homosexual practices)can in time contaminate the whole pot of otherwise wholesome goodness through uncontrollable proliferation.
Control is the necessary action to stem or delay the influence of unwholesomeness on the wider population. Small pockets of deviant humanity can be allowed to engage in whatever they fancy silently and unannounced, among themselves and behind closed doors. Thusly, they will not have much influence on the rest of the populace to do same. Unencouraged, others not yet inclined will then not possess the seed of tempting thoughts lodged in their minds. But this can only happen if the greatest care is taken to ensure others are not similarly exposed to the deviant ideas. In this regard, ignorance is surely blissful.
With the offending fly out of the way, the pot of wholesome-ness (the whole array of women-related issues of interest to Aware) can continue to be lovingly tended to in time.
Anyway if they do emerge victorious in e EGM, their “big strong mountain” will pump in lots of financial resources to support e new exco. The “big strong mountain” can build multimillion religious centres and pay really good salaries to the caretakers of these facilities, so channelling such additional support should not be a problem. The future looks bright for the new exco if they win.
Citizen:
That ‘big strong mountain’ is also known as Focus on the Family.
[...] ‘Give new exco time’ – Yawning Bread: Feminism is important for men too – The Wayang Party: How much money did AWARE new exco spend since 28 March 2009? – Youtube: What happened inside Aware office a day before the EGM [Excellent remake of the hitler [...]
for the egm alone, they spent an estimated 90,000. that’s probably a conservative estimate, and i think that doesn’t even include the cancellation of venues.
i shudder to think about how much more was spent when you throw in all their other expenses.
make josie and her team pay back the money. sue them for anyhow use money without authorisation. obviously they dont even know how to run AWARE.
ms lee should also report her team for wrongful dismissal to MOM.
Legally Josie and her cohort have breached the constitution which restricts expenditure by the Exco to not more than 20k a month. Even if they have good reason for the EGM (maureen tried to defend herself by saying that they had to book a suitable venue) which is very arguable, there are other costs such as the card key system which they installed and the surveillance system.
By law, therefore they are personally liable. Now will AWARE will pursue the claim against them? I think there is no choice. If AWARE does not pursue this claim (and even leaving aside vindictiveness – yes, I can hear all the quips about hell having no fury)it is the duty of the exco to pursue this matter otherwise they can be deemed negligent themselves. At the EGM, I even heard some enraged members swearing to file a criminal complaint to the police. So this issue won’t go away just yet.
My take on it is that Josie and her cohort will have to pay up. They have no choice. Still with a rich FM there and other well wishers, I suppose that they will be able to manage it. It’s a good lesson though isn’t it? Think of the consequences before you do anything risky. Now that’s a good family value to teach the kids.
AWARE is finished. by claiming to be inclusive and representing everyone, it actually failed to represent anyone or stand for anything. it now has zero credibility with the main stream populace.