The South China Morning Post recently published an article on Welfare NGOs disclosure of the salaries of the top salaried employees.

I fully agree that charity accountability is important to maintain public trust and confidence in the work of NGOs. Funders and donors should know where the money is going. Yet, the salary of the CEO is not the most important piece of information that can tell whether public money is being used responsibly. Donors should be looking at the overall financial status and set up of the Welfare NGOs, that may include their net assets, their income source, the amount and proportion of their expenditures devoted to service activities, central administration and fundraising costs.

Donors should also be interested to know who is responsible for overseeing the financial and operations of these welfare NGOs. Governance information like who sits on the Board of these welfare NGOs and whether these Board members are salaried and at what level, are also key accountability information.

The 130 Welfare NGOs on the Wisegiving list, a web platform launched by the Hong Kong Council of Social Service, do disclose such information for public scrutiny that benchmark international disclosure standards.

Moreover, those welfare NGOs that receive government funding are subject to monitoring and accountability required by the government. These welfare NGOs have to submit annual audited financial reports and receive regular management and financial audit from the Social Welfare Department, which include reporting the pay of their top three salaried employees annually to the Department. If the public is concerned about the salaries of NGOs staff are paid out of proportion, there is a government rule on "no better off than similar government posts".

Welfare NGOs may not have responded upfront to a press enquiry on the pay of their CEOs, but this should not be taken singly as "a disregard for the community it serves" described in the SCMP's Editorial of "We need to know where our money is going"

Charity accountability should be on being transparent about how public resources are put to good use, being cost effective and being responsible for decisions on the deployment of these resources. The social welfare sector is accountable and open to government and public scrutiny. As welfare NGOs strive towards higher transparency and public accountability, they should be supported to develop a more objective disclosure system that can benchmark international standards and satisfy local expectations.