CHARITIES are expected to implement measures to safeguard against potential abuse for illicit purposes, said Minister of State for Trade and Industry Alvin Tan in Parliament on Tuesday (Oct 3).

This includes exercising vigilance in accepting donations, in particular when the donors are unknown or unfamiliar to the charities, Tan said. Charities should also be vigilant when donors request part of the donations be redirected to unknown third parties, for purposes that are incongruent with the charities’ charitable objectives, he added.

The minister was responding to questions by Holland-Bukit Timah MP Edward Chia on the duties of charity fundraising platforms to protect against money laundering or terrorist financing.

The questions were supplementary to three ministerial statements made in Parliament to address the S$2.8 billion money laundering probe in Singapore.

Tan noted that charities have a legal obligation to file suspicious transaction reports if they know, or have grounds to suspect, that the transaction that they are dealing with is connected to criminal activity.

They should also perform reasonable due diligence checks on donors, to ascertain the legitimacy of the source of funds, or donations received, especially when a substantial amount of donation is received from an unfamiliar or an unknown donor, he added.

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In a ministerial statement, Second Minister for Home Affairs Josephine Teo noted that some of the arrested individuals have made donations to charities in Singapore.

Some have decided on their own to ringfence these donations, while others have made police reports and plan to surrender the monies to the police, Teo said.

The Commissioner of Charities will issue an advisory to encourage all charities to review their donor records to ascertain whether they have received donations from the arrested individuals and linked entities, and file the requisite suspicious transaction reports, she said.

The advisory will also include advice to charities on how to handle the monies, she added.