MALAYSIA, May 26, 2018 (The Star): The government is planning to set up Hindu Endowment Boards in all states to ensure credibility and transparency in temple management. Human Resources Minister M. Kulasegaran said the board would ensure conformity and uniformity in the running of temples nationwide, as well as make public the financial accounts of temples. “We want to model it on Penang’s Hindu Endowment Board, but expand on that and implement an improved version. In Penang, the endowment board hosts and organises the yearly Thaipusam and Pongal festivals. They oversee the governance of temples, landed property, buildings, houses, burial grounds and money donated for the benefit of the Hindu community in Penang.
“We hope to enact a law on this as well,” Kulasegaran said, adding that such an endowment board in every state was part of Pakatan Harapan manifesto. He said this in response to Hindu organisations calling for a full audit of the Batu Caves temple management committee when it was discovered that the committee was not registered with the Registrar of Societies (RoS). While acknowledging that they were not registered with RoS, committee chairman Tan Sri R. Nadarajah said the committee submitted detailed accounts every year to the Attorney-General’s Chambers and followed the administration procedure as stipulated.