Thank you for your prayers and your words of encouragement which we receive through the mail every now and then. We know you have prayed because as we ploughed on for greater transparency, accountability and good governance in our church, the Lord has led us step by step to uncover things that we believe God wants us to know, so that corrective action can be taken to restore our church back into His sovereign will and purpose.
However, with more discoveries, our hearts are saddened and now we bear the burden of “knowing too much to remain quiet”. We, the undersigned (and Bro Siew Chyuan who is away on business) were given the opportunity to see the audited accounts of Calvary International Ministry (CIM) on 21 June 2008. We went, without any expectation to achieve much but what we saw that day shocked us to our bones. Therein, lies our dilemma. Before the accounts were shown to us, the four of us were asked by one of the deacons not to disclose what we will see. All four of us have been struggling within our spirits since that day as we were torn between telling the truth to our fellow Calvarites or keeping mum and allow our deacons to “sweep things under the carpet”. We were “lashed” out at by our fellow members when we refused to tell it all. Our silence infuriated one member who posed a question to us, saying that ‘If we see our neighbour raping his daughter, will we just keep quiet and pray about it”. We realise that sooner or later, we have to make a judgment call and to do what is morally right. And that is the reason for this update.
We wish to clarify here that we were not allowed to take back the CIM accounts or make any photocopy but were graciously allowed by the deacons to take notes and hand-copied what we could during the two hour meeting. Just for your info, Bro Hong Meng, independent of us, had earlier requested to review the audited CIM accounts, the bank statements and other records but was turned down.
I. CALVARY INTERNATIONAL MINISTRY (CIM)
What do we know about CIM? We know that it is a personal ministry of Senior Pastor Guneratnam. Some of us may remember that it was set up in 2002 with a gift of RM30,000 from Calvary Church to celebrate his 30th anniversary in Calvary Church. We were told that CIM would help Senior Pastor fulfill his calling as an evangelist. Other than that we know nothing about CIM or its activities as it is a personal ministry and not part of Calvary Church.
After the last AGM, where questions were raised on CIM, two sisters were allowed to look at its very confidential Charter. The Charter stated that it is the ministry of Senior Pastor who is the Founder of CIM. He holds the position of President while Sister Petrina is the Vice-President. Both are permanent directors of CIM. To the best of our knowledge, the present directors of CIM are Senior Pastor Prince Guneratnam, Sister Petrina Guneratnam, Jim Guneratnam, Pastor Peter Ong and Aric Low
II. THE ACCOUNTS OF CIM.
We were shown the audited accounts of CIM for the years 2002 to 2007. A summary of the funds which were transferred from the Mission Dept to CIM is set below:-
FUNDS TRANSFERRED FROM CHURCH MISSIONS DEPT (TOTAL: 1,309,546)
The following observations were made from our review and analysis of the CIM audited accounts which did not have much detailed information. We were not shown the general ledger, cash book, payment vouchers or supporting invoices.
1. CIM total income from 2002 till end 2007 amounted to RM1,489,913. Of this, about RM1.31 million came from Calvary Church.
2. During this period, CIM paid out RM477,625 on Meetings & Conferences Expenses which was essentially President’s Travel. Incidentally, nearly all the trips were to attend conferences and meetings. Whether these trips could be classified as evangelism (which is the aim and purpose for the set-up of CIM), we will leave it to your own judgment.
3. At the end of 2007, CIM had a total of RM993,224.
The questions on our minds which only the deacons can answer are:
1. We were only told of the initial gift of RM30,000-00 but not the subsequent RM1.28 million. Why was the Church not informed of the other amounts?
2. What is the justification for the subsequent RM200,000 per year allocation when the average spent per year for Senior Pastor’s travelling was less than RM100,000 per year?
3. Why can't the Church pay for Senior Pastor’s travelling if the trips are justified and necessary for the fulfilment of his duties of the Church? Why must it be hidden in CIM outside the purview of the members?
4. Did the deacons know and approve of all these additional giving?
5. If yes, then why did they approve when this is a personal ministry of Senior Pastor and not part of Calvary Church?
6. If not, what did they do when they knew?
7. At our meeting with the deacons on 31st May, 2008, we were told that our Missions Department gave a total of RM1,098,916 to CIM from 2002 to end 2007. This figure is correct if we exclude the designated fund amount of RM210,630 given to CIM during the years. Why did the deacons give us the wrong figure? Or is it that they did not know?
III. CARE RELIEF & DEVELOPMENT AGENCY (CARED)
We discovered another shocking thing. In 2006 another RM427,757 was transferred from the Missions Department to CIM to finance the setting up of a sub-ministry called Care Relief & Development Agency (CARED) within CIM. Apparently this agency has its own bank account. We are not sure if the deacons ARE aware of the existence of this agency until very recently. It is highly possible that this transfer was never approved by the deacons. As we are not allowed to see the board minutes, we do not know for sure. Needless to say, the congregation would not have heard of this agency. This is part of Senior Pastor’s personal ministry. It is not part of Calvary Church.
In summary, 2006 and 2007, RM149,204-00 which was received as income in the designated fund of CIM, plus RM427,757 from Missions Dept was transferred to CARED account as follows:
FUNDS TRANSFERRED FROM CHURCH MISSIONS DEPT (TOTAL: 576,961 )
From the above it can be seen that out of a total of RM576,961 which was transferred from the Missions Dept to this new ministry, only RM157,457 was given out during the years 2006-2007. The cash at bank and fixed deposit remaining in the account as at end 2007 is RM431,734 inclusive of interest earned.
Of the total designated offering received of RM149,204, only RM64,494 was given out, leaving a balance of RM84,710 ** which was not paid out by the end of 2007. This includes the RM41,627-00 received from Calvary Church for Indonesia Earthquake Relief.
The questions we need to ask are:
1. Why were all these missionary/designated offerings from Calvary Church paid over to CIM instead of being given directly to the designated recipients?
2. Why are designated offerings amounting to RM84K from 2006 still unpaid?
3. Why is CIM withholding the RM41K from Calvary Church from reaching the victims of the Indonesian Earthquake which happened in 2006?
4. Does this imply that our Missions Department is telling the Church that our offerings had been paid over to the designated recipients when in actual fact, it had only been paid over to CIM and CIM was still sitting on it? And earning interest on it while the victims are suffering out there?
IV. OTHER FACTS OF INTEREST
1. Senior Pastor Prince Guneratnam is the only Senior Pastor of Calvary Church, Chief Executive of Calvary Church, Chairman of its Board of Deacons, Head of its Missions Department, an ex-officio member of all committees, sub-committees and departments in the Church, a cheque signatory to all bank accounts of the Church and at the same time, the President of his personal ministry which is called Calvary International Ministry.
2. The CIM audited accounts were signed by Senior Pastor Guneratnam and Pastor Peter.
3. Senior Pastor and Pastor Peter are cheque signatories for our Missions Department.
4. Both Senior Pastor and Pastor Peter are directors of CIM.
5. From 2002 - 2007, a total of close to RM1.9 million has been transferred from Missions Dept to CIM and CARED.
6. At the end of 2007, CIM together with CARED had a total of RM1.4 million in hand made up of cash and bank balances of RM119,394 and fixed deposits of RM1,306,247.
7. The above transfer of funds from the Church or Missions Dept to CIM is without the approval of the members and is obviously a conflict of interest. We are not well-versed with the law but this certainly is a situation that will interest the authorities.
CONCLUSION
Brother and sisters, now you too know what we have discovered. Our next pressing question is: What do we do with this discovery? What would Jesus do if He is here today?
God Bless!
His willing servants,
KC, Teng & Liza
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