Maintaining trust is essential for any charity. Lose public confidence and donations are likely to drop. This week, the charity World Vision has been in the headlines for reasons it would no doubt rather not be.

On Monday, The Age reported on World Vision cash being diverted in a case in which there is already considerable documentary evidence to suggest that Glenn Kuramoto, the father of an executive at the charity, was the recipient of secret payments for his role in securing World Vision Australia's printing contract.

Zane and Glenn Kuramoto.

There is no suggestion that his son, Zane Kuramoto, knew of or was party to secret payments, and Zane denies any wrongdoing. World Vision has called in police and auditors to investigate the matter, and has notified the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission. This response is to be welcomed, although significant concerns remain over how the charity initially handled the whistleblower who brought the payments to its attention in December.

In another blow to World Vision's reputation, it was revealed yesterday that it had reported itself to the Fair Work Ombudsman in December after discovering an error in its payroll had resulted in about 200 casuals and 45 permanent employees being underpaid. Encouragingly, acting chief executive Graham Strong apologised unreservedly and said $8.9 million had been set aside to repay the workers.