SINGAPORE – While there is no indication of overseas funds flowing into Singapore via the local charity sector to support terrorism-related activities, the Commissioner of Charities (COC) has released a toolkit for charities to avoid being exploited for such purposes.

The toolkit helps charities to identify and mitigate the risk of terrorist financing abuse. 

Terrorist financing abuse refers to the exploitation of non-profit groups by terrorists and terrorist groups to raise or move funds, or support terrorism-related operations.

The 2020 Singapore Terrorism Financing National Risk Assessment identified non-profit groups here, including charities, to be at risk of such abuse, said the COC’s 2022 annual report, which was released in early December.

COC Desmond Chin told The Sunday Times: “To date, there has been no indication of foreign sources of funding flowing into Singapore via the local charity sector to support domestic terrorism-related activities. There is also no indication of funds raised by these charities being transmitted to fund terrorism-related activities abroad.”

Mr Chin said the abuse of charities for terrorist financing may take various forms, given the diverse nature of the charity sector.

These could include diverting funds for charitable purposes to a terrorist group, leveraging the charities’ activities or facilities to recruit supporters, and carrying out activities to support terrorism-related activities under the guise of legitimate charitable activities.

Mr Chin added: “It is therefore critical for charities to strengthen their governance structure and financial controls, and carry out due diligence checks on their stakeholders such as donors and partners, to ensure the source and use of donated funds are legitimate and lawful.”

The COC office held two training sessions in 2023, and plans to conduct three more sessions in 2024, to help charities understand the principles and best practices in the toolkit.

The toolkit, which was launched earlier in February, can also be found on the Charity Portal, which is the COC website.

In August, 10 individuals were charged in Singapore’s largest money-laundering case, with the value of assets seized or frozen adding up to over $2.8 billion.

In October, Second Minister for Home Affairs Josephine Teo said in Parliament that some of those arrested had donated to charities here.

She said some of the charities had ring-fenced these donations, while others had lodged police reports and planned to surrender the money to the police.

Mr Chin said his office is unable to provide more details on the case as investigations are still ongoing.

He pointed out that the Office of the COC has rolled out various initiatives to raise awareness in the charity sector of the potential risks of terrorist financing and money laundering abuse since 2013.

For example, in November, it conducted a webinar to share insights with charities on how they can safeguard themselves against the risks of abuse for terrorist financing and money laundering.

Food From The Heart, a charity, has had a policy on anti-money laundering and terrorist financing since 2020. Its chief executive, Mr Robin Lee, said: “This framework is to ensure that donations we receive are legitimate and to build and maintain trust with our donors.”

For example, when new or unknown donors donate more than a certain amount to the charity, its fund-raising staff have to verify their backgrounds through various means. Such checks are done on individuals who give more than $20,000, Mr Lee said.

So far, the charity has not spotted any suspicious donations.

Mr Lee said: “When news of charities receiving donations from the 10 (people) arrested in the billion-dollar money laundering case was made known, we quickly went through our donor database to check if we had received donations from the 10 named individuals through our digitalised donor management system.

 “Our checks confirmed that we did not receive any donations from any of the 10 suspects.”