A Red Cross to bear(2)

Tao said that a lack of transparency and previous scandals were the major reasons, "but we have a set of protocols."

Embezzlement of donations and opaque financial disclosure are the most serious problems facing the RCSC. Its online tracking system, built to improve credibility, doesn't contain detailed breakdowns of spending on projects financed by donations, with general descriptions of projects included instead.

"A significant amount of donations were raised through administrative measures," Deng Guosheng, director of the NGO Research Center at Tsinghua University, told the Global Times. "Administrative measures" typically refer to measures such as compulsory donations from the wages of government employees.

The situation has changed. As of late Thursday, the RCSC system had received cash and goods donations worth over 389 million yuan and had used 86 million, in contrast to the 140 million yuan received by the One Foundation.

"Despite its severe problems, the RCSC's resources and effect on urgent disaster relief as a member of the National Disaster Reduction system is still imperative," said Deng.

Despite suffering a wave of online vitriol, 25 RCSC rescue teams are working hard to save lives and distribute supplies. "It's been hard to bear the curses, but I'm happy that victims, volunteers and companies still welcome us while seeing our logo," a member of the RCSC's Lantian rescue team who asked to remain anonymous, told the Global Times.

Compliments also came from private organizations working on the front line. "They're tenacious, almost all the tents I saw in Lushan, Baoxing and Tianquan were set up by the RCSC," Deng Fei, a volunteer charity worker, told the Global Times.

Struggling to recover

The RCSC took several reform measures after the Guo Meimei scandal, including establishing an independent supervisory committee, launching online donation tracking system, and hiring third-party accounting firms to audit donations. In recent days, a flurry of rumors has suggested that the RCSC will reopen inquiries into the Guo Meimei case.

"Those are good, but as a government organization it can't solve the longstanding bureaucratic problems, especially in terms of local branches, nor easily repair the trust crisis by releasing investigation results of previous scandals," said Deng Guosheng. "It should start with personnel and structural reform. Leaders should be elected and hired rather than appointed and the executive and management board should be separated, but this would be an extremely hard and long process given the complexity and size of the RCSC."

He added that although private organizations are still weak compared to the RCSC, they have strong potential to compete with it in terms of professionalism, which could eventually force it to reform.

He's not the only one with suggestions. "Have a new leader who's not an appointed official, and restructure it as an NGO," suggested Chen Haowu, professor of economics with Peking University.

Wang Zhenyao, president of the One Foundation Philanthropy Research Institute at Beijing Normal University, disagrees. "It's unrealistic in the short-term, as the RCSC's status allows it to mobilize national resources and ask for international help."