Fund-raising strategy

Mr Kong himself mapped out the church's fund raising strategy in 2005, having spent $47.6 million on another church four years earlier.

He told The New Paper then that donation campaigns run for six months and is followed by a six month break.

Then it starts again. That's to prevent donor fatigue, he explained.

His target? $2 million a month or an average of $100 per church member to hit the target of about $40 million in a year.

With large sums of money involved, the issue of corporate governance emerges.

Associate Professor Victor Yeo Chuan Seng of the Nanyang Business School said: "I think that regardless of whether it is a charity or religious organisation. There's always room for good governance."

He said he had no issues with religious organisations being run as business organisations "so long as they keep to their objective" - that of meeting the spiritual needs of its community.

Mr Kong himself had acknowledged the issues of governance and transparency in another interview with The New Paper in 2005.

He had said then: "We talk about transparency on two levels. First we make sure there is no wastage of money on projects of no benefit, and we fulfil the mission of the church.

"Second, we make sure our paid staff are not abusing their rights."

He said other than an external auditor and a board of trustees, some church members, who include CEOs, bankers and entrepreneurs, also act as watchdogs.

In that same year, Mr Kong took himself off the payroll. His last drawn salary was $8,000 a month.

Between November 2008 and October 2009, City Harvest financial records show that total employee cost was about $9.2 million for 150 staffers for a 12 month period.

Explaining the salary payout, Mr Kong said in the 2005 interview: "When an organisation gets big, we need capable people (to run the organisation), so we need to pay them well.

"They can do it for religious reasons but what about their families?"