Financial Management

A good friend of mine email me a letter written by Dr. Tan Tee Kwong, a former deputy minister, revealing about how the money of Government Linked Company being misused. It is indeed sad to see how financial mismanagement leads to the destruction of a well managed organization. Well, in my considered opinion, I appreciate Dr. Tan for revealing the matter but I think it is a bit too late. He should have resigned from his cabinet post in protest when he discovered this issue. Instead of speaking out now, he should have expose this in 2004 and bring this issue to the public knowledge But he failed and I only can link this to the fact that politicians are opportunist !!!.

On the other hand, we should also not forget the crisis that is happening in the Christian community around us i.e. Calvary Church(CC) and City Harvest(CH) and many others that we may not aware off. In the case of CC and CH, I will not say who is right and who is wrong but I am sure there are lessons than we can learn from this crisis. The most common battle cry by the Christian leaders is that they are under attack from the devil when such crisis comes up. Well, we will blame the devil for the crisis but we fail to realize, it is our own error/weakness that allows the devil to manipulate the situation.

This is a wake up call to the churches in Malaysia and elsewhere to be on guard with regards to the governance of the house of God especially in the area of financial management. There is dire need to setup a proper and well structured policies and guidelines in managing finances. Like it or not, many don't have clear structure and guidelines in this aspect of church operation. This is one area where many ministries fail and fall. When such policies are not there, we may allow for temptation to creep in that leads to many decision made without proper guidelines and carried out of self interest.

Too many times as we have seen in Malaysia and elsewhere, a lack of transparency and accountability in organizations has led to all sorts of troubles for those in charge. Churches preach about integrity and accountability, and many work hard to manage their finances appropriately. Yet, surprisingly high percentage of churches don't do all that's required in financial management. The Center for the Study of Church Management at Villanova’s School of Business (US) reported in January 2007 that 85% of U.S. dioceses responding said that they had uncovered embezzlement schemes over the past five years.

Like putting watchmen at the city gate, we also need to be on guard on how we manage the responsibility and the resources that God has entrusted to us.I believe in the establishment of sound financial management systems, policies, procedures, controls, and practices in the financial management aspect of the church. It is important we set it right so that the future generation can be blessed with the structure that we have setup.

Be Blessed.