K.P. Yohannan – Page 43 – Warren Throckmorton

Information Missing from Gospel for Asia Websites After Report on K.P. Yohannan's Board Memberships in India

On August 14, I posted an excerpt from a May 14 Gospel for Asia meeting where K.P. Yohannan told GFA staff that he was not on any organization boards in India. Yohannan said:

I am not legally on any boards, any trusts, anything in any of these countries. I have no powers to make decisions or sign money, or release money, or make decisions…why? Because anybody who work in the United States or overseas countries have a board membership or have legal membership should not be part of their legal entities in India. It’s a conflict of interest…

However, documents from Indian courts, the Indian state of Kerala, and a few of his own schools say otherwise. Yohannan is listed as the managing trustee and president of Gospel for Asia in India. He is also listed as managing trustee and lead Bishop (Metropolitan) for Believers’ Church. GFA in India is billed as a nation building arm of BC.
In that post, I have links to five court cases (there are many) and a state document where Yohannan is listed as a managing trustee of GFA and/or BC. I also have links and screen captures to Believers’ Church websites which describe Yohannan as chair of two boards within the church. However, those links now do not work or go to a “maintenance” page.
If you click the link to a Believers’ Church Residential School page which is supposed to contain “mandatory information” for schools in Delhi, it now looks like this:

Ten days ago, it looked like this (see also Google’s cache image):

Yohannan’s son also serves on this managing committee and he is referred to as the V.P. of GFA and member of the trust.

Siny Punnoose is a member of Yohannan’s family (niece I believe) and Daniel Johnson is his son-in-law. Rev. Daniel Punnoose is Yohannan’s son and serves on both the Trust* and as Vice President of GFA. Yohannan told his staff that such a dual membership was a conflict of interest.
The website for the Caarmel Engineering College also comes up blank. On August 14, Yohannan was listed as Chairman of the Trust (here I assume this means the Caarmel Educational Trust) and Metropolitan of the Believers’ Church, clearly a leadership position which makes him the leader of the denomination.

The information page for the Believers’ Church Seminary’s administration continues to be live and shows Yohannan as president and his son as a board member.
In another post, I plan to post another denial by Yohannan of being on any board. This comes in context of a revelation in May to staff that an entity related to Believers’ Church in India gave $19 million to help pay for the construction of new headquarters and compound in Wills Point, TX.
More to come…

*I am not completely certain that this “Trust” is the Believers Church board. It may refer only to the school trust. Given the information on the rest of the page, it appears that Yohannan and his son are trustees of the Believers’ Church. According to documents filed by Believers’ Church lawyers, Yohannan is the managing trustee, yet another reason to believe that Yohannan has governing authority in Believers’ Church.

Believers' Church Communion Liturgy: Is This Evangelical?

I recently obtained a copy of the Believers’ Church book of liturgy (part one, part two). Recall that Gospel for Asia sent nearly $20 million to Believers’ Church in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2014. GFA’s president and founder, K.P. Yohannan, is the chair of the Believer’s Church trust and serves as the church’s Metropolitan Bishop.
According to former GFA staff, this book guides the priests during the church service and taking of communion. Although I am no expert on Roman Catholic doctrine, the practices seem quite consistent with Catholic (or perhaps Orthodox) teaching and practice. I am posting it to allow readers to decide and evaluate for themselves.
In particular, I was drawn to the liturgy and practices of communion. In the liturgy, the bread and wine are referred to as becoming the body and blood of Christ. The terminology seems much less evangelical and much more Catholic (or Orthodox), appearing to communicate a belief that the elements become the body and blood of Christ. Here are the portions of interest beginning on page 26.

Even though Gospel for Asia and the Believers’ Church claim to be evangelical, this approach to communion seems quite un-evangelical. In addition to the declaration that the bread is the body and the wine is the blood, the priest crosses himself numerous times and the communion is served to the congregation by the priest in a format very unlike evangelical churches. Without passing judgment on the religious merit of this approach to communion, I suspect this narrative and methodology will be a surprise to most evangelicals.
Additional information:
Compare the Catholic prayer regarding the Body and Blood of Christ to the Believers’ Church liturgy. First, from the Roman Missal Eucharistic Prayer 2:

Now the comparable portion from the Believers’ Church liturgy:

According to Richard Willmer, the elements becoming the Body and Blood of Christ “for us” rather than “to us” is a distinctly Catholic formulation as opposed to the Anglican view. The Believers’ Church wording is very close to the Roman prayer.

Gospel for Asia's President K.P. Yohannan and Indian Courts Seem to Disagree About His Status With Indian Charities

Listening to the May 14, 2015 Gospel for Asia staff meeting, I heard K.P. Yohannan say he doesn’t have control or sit on any boards of GFA organizations in other countries. Listen:
Click this link: K.P. Yohannan tells staff he is not on any boards in India
Transcript:

And by the way, just so you know, I am not legally on any boards, any trusts, anything in any of these countries. I have no powers to make decisions or sign money, or release money, or make decisions, I am completely legally…why? Because anybody who work in the United States or overseas countries have a board membership or have legal membership should not be part of their legal entities in India. It’s a conflict of interest and therefore we send the funds and it is immediately under the government watch care and the government of India is responsible and investigative agencies and tax divisions to make sure that is carried out within the time frame or whatever they do, that is a public thing.

I found this to be an odd declaration since the 2013 financial audit seems to point to a common board member of GFA in the United States and GFA affiliates in India, Nepal, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. From the 2013 audit:

If this board member isn’t K.P. Yohannan, then who is it? No matter who it is, by Yohannan’s reasoning, being on both boards would be unethical since Yohannan says having an American board member on the board of an Indian charity which allocates American funds is a conflict of interest.
However, it certainly seems as though it is Yohannan. For instance, Yohannan is referred to as a plaintiff in a court case brought by Gospel for Asia in India (click the link to read the case notes). He is also described as the “managing trustee and president” of Gospel for Asia based in Kerala. From the Indian website:

This document is dated February of 2015, just three months before Yohannan told his staff he wasn’t on any boards. There are many other court cases which list him as “mananging trustee and president” of Gospel of Asia (link, link, link, link).
In another lawsuit, Yohannan is listed as the managing trustee of the Carmel Education Trust of the Believers’ Church.

3. Caarmel Education Trust, (Believer’s Church Trust) Represented by its Managing Trustee, Dr.K.P.Yohannan, Caarmel Engineering College, Perunadu,Pin – 689711 (R1 by Adv.K.Venugopalan Nair) (R2 & R3 by Adv.Anilkumar.A.S) APPEAL No.897/2012

In this publication by the state of Kerala in India, Yohannan is referred to as the “Managing Trustee” of the Believers’ Church.

G . O. (Rt.) No. 448/2011/LBR. Thiruvananthapuram, 17th March 2011. Whereas, the Government are of opinion that an industrial dispute exists between Dr. K. P. Yohannan, Managing Trustee, Believers Church India (B. C. I.), Thottabhagam P. O., Thiruvalla and the workman of the above referred establishment Shri Joseph Kizhakkedathu, Manipara P. O., via Uliyikkal, Kannur District-670 705 in respect of matters mentioned in the annexure to this order ; And whereas, in the opinion of Government it is necessary to refer the said industrial dispute for adjudication…(emphasis added)

Yohannan is listed as the patron of the Believers’ Church Medical Cente, the Residential School and the Mahatma School. Why would he be listed as patron if he has nothing to do with determining their funding?
It seems clear that the legal system in India believes that K.P. Yohannan is on the boards and has responsibility for these entities.
Additional Information:
An alert reader posted a link in the comments that K.P. Yohannan is listed as the chairman of the Believers’ Church trust on a page of one of BC’s schools; and of course he is the Metropolitan Bishop of the church. He is president of GFA-US, a group which sent nearly $20 million to Believers’ Church in the FY ending in March 2014. In addition to K.P. Yohannan, Yohannan’s son Daniel sits on both boards (GFA-U.S. and Believers’ Church).

Thanks to another alert reader, we can see that Yohannan and his son are listed as board members of the Believers’ Church Seminary, with K.P. Yohannan being listed as president of the Governing Board. Yohannan is also listed on the Caarmel Engineering School as the chairman of the Believers’ Church trust.

All of these listings are current.

Gospel for Asia's 2014 Audit is Late

Member organizations with of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability with are supposed to file renewal documents each year. When those documents are due depends on when the fiscal year ends.

The renewal information is due by January 31 if your fiscal year ended on April 1 through September 30.
The renewal information is due by July 31 if your fiscal year ended on October 1 through March 31.

Gospel for Asia in the U.S. operates on a calendar year schedule so their renewal was due July 31. As a part of the renewal, an audited financial statement is required. However, I have learned that GFA’s audited statement for 2014 is not complete. Those who inquire about the 2014 audited statement are getting this reply:

Currently, we do not have 2014 finance reports ready yet, as our auditors are in the process of auditing GFA’s 2014 year.

This means that GFA’s renewal is incomplete. However, not to worry, the ECFA gives member organizations an automatic two-month extension.

Financial Statements Policy

Current members should submit financial statements with the Annual Membership Renewal (AMR) by the due date. However, occasionally members are unable to supply the financial statements on a timely basis for a variety of reasons. ECFA will evaluate the reason for the delay, balancing a desire to help an organization through a possibly difficult situation not of its own making, and the necessity of maintaining standards to protect the integrity of ECFA, through the timely submission of information.
Policy

Financial statements.Financial statements should accompany the AMR when it is due. (This provides the member a minimum of four months from the end of their fiscal year end to obtain the required financial statements.)

Two-month extension.If all other AMR materials are submitted on time, an automatic two-month extension to submit the financial statements will be granted.

Additional extensions.Members unable to meet the two-month extended deadline will generally be granted an additional two-month extension if the extension does not exceed 12 months from the end of the fiscal year. A request for this extension must include an explanation of the status of the audit, the reason for the delay, and the expected date of completion.

However, renewals can still be processed and that seal can still be displayed as long as the fees are paid.

Our financial statements are not complete. What should we do? Although your financial statements are due along with your renewal form, if they are not available, complete the renewal form without them (we understand the financial section of the renewal form will be incomplete). You will be asked to provide an approximate date the financials will be available and also to estimate your total cash contribution in order to estimate your membership fee. Once financials are finalized, please forward a copy to ECFA or to href=”mailto:[email protected]”>[email protected]. We will complete the financial section and refund or invoice for any payment difference. If the financials are complete but the Form 990 is not, please submit the renewal form and financials and send the Form 990 when complete.

Last year, the audited statement was dated June 13, 2014.
Regular readers can probably guess about why the audit is late.
While I appreciate that the ECFA’s audit requirement puts some pressure on an organization to disclose important information, at the same time, I believe the ECFA should flag those organizations which have not turned in the documentation. If donors rely on ECFA, they won’t know that after months of not answering legitimate questions, GFA hasn’t turned in an audited statement of their 2014 finances, even though GFA has had over 7 months to do so.

Gospel for Asia Canada Gets C- From Canadian Charity Watchdog Organization

Charity watchdog Charity Intelligence Canada has given Gospel for Asia Canada a C- “based on the charity’s public reporting of the work it does and the results it achieves.” Beginning in 2012, CIC rated 453 charities operating in Canada on the following dimensions:

Charity Intelligence scored charities on answers to 26 questions covering strategy, activities, outputs, outcomes, and learning. We modeled the scorecard on charity sector resources developed by the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants, New Philanthropy Capital in the UK, Global Reporting Initiative, and Queen’s University Centre for Governance.
Charity Intelligence used a matrix of questions focusing on how well a charity reported:
1. The problem it addresses (Problem/Need)
2. The programs and services it provides to fix the need (Activities)
3. Quantifying its programs and services (Outputs)
4. The results it achieves (Outcomes)
5. The reliability and clarity of reporting (Quality)
6. The learning and changes made (Learning)
Ci scored charities in these six areas and covered seven indicators: timeliness, balance, consistency, clarity, reliability, forward-looking, and accuracy. The final score is a measure of the charity’s social reporting. This scoring does not assess the strategy, the quality of activities, the level of outputs or the impressiveness of outcomes. All it does is assess if enough information has been disclosed, such that any reader would have the opportunity to make those assessments.

I have been asserting since May of this year that Gospel for Asia has refused to disclose basic information regarding their operations and financial dealings. As this rating demonstrates, GFA doesn’t rate well on providing donors with sufficient information to assess the accuracy of GFA’s claims.
According to CIC, the C- rating puts GFA in the bottom 20% of organizations rated (for the sake of comparison, World Vision gets a B+).

Weeks have gone by and no one from Gospel for Asia has explained why GFA India auditors have not disclosed Canadian donations on government reports. In Canadian reports, GFA Canada disclosed that it sent $15 million dollars (CAD) to India but this is not disclosed as required on Indian reports. Donations from other countries (e.g., United States, Germany, Australia, etc.) are disclosed but the funds sent from Canada are not.