T.T. Durai, the former chief executive of the National Kidney Foundation, was forced to resign in 2005 after admitting that on top of his S$600,000 (US$390,000) salary, he had used charity funds to pay for gold-plated taps in his office bathroom and first-class travel.

The NKF sued Durai and other former officials in a bid to recover a total of S$12 million.

During the first two days of the court case, which opened on Monday, the NKF's lawyer described how Durai had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of the charity's funds on expensive hotels and overseas travel during his tenure.

"T.T. Durai is consenting to judgement and has agreed to pay (legal) costs," K. Shanmugam, the lawyer for the NKF, told Singapore's high court on Wednesday.

Shanmugam, who declined to give details of the legal costs, said that the damages which Durai has to pay NKF would be assessed and heard in a separate hearing in about a year. Durai did not appear in court on Wednesday.

The scandal at NKF, which relied heavily on public donations, dented the city-state's reputation for efficiency and freedom from corruption when it first came to light in 2005.

NKF now has a new board of directors.

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