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."
Competitive charities
As private charity organizations excelled at rescue efforts, attracting hundreds of millions of yuan in donations, it appears the RCSC has new competitors.
"30 foundations formed an alliance on Wednesday promising to be fully transparent and said they would shoulder any legal responsibilities to regain public trust," Tao Ze, vice president of the China Foundation Center, told the Global Times.
"Transparency and reaching out to areas the authorities might ignore are all we can do to build our reputation, but we encountered many troubles getting government approval, for example, when setting up efforts to distribute supplies directly to villagers," You Yin, the Chengdu branch head of the Suishou Public Welfare Fund, told the Global Times.
You's words reveal the biggest difficulty for private agencies, despite their recent success - their inability to coordinate on the scale of the RCSC.
"The government and RCSC both have to accept diverse participation from private organizations and build mechanisms to integrate rather than suppress them," said Wang Zhenyao.
"Managerial ability is the essential challenge for both private and governmental charities; you don't earn trust without professionalism no matter who you are," said Deng Fei.
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