Gold Coast Sikh temple sold by Surjit Singh for $5.61m, questions raised over charitable donations
A Gold Coast religious community has been left without a place of worship and raised questions over the use of almost $1m in donations after its brand new temple was sold to another religious group for $5.61m. SPECIAL REPORT>>
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MEMBERS of the Gold Coast Sikh community have been left without a place of worship and have raised questions over the use of almost $1m in donations and government funding after the city’s brand new temple was sold to another religious group for $5.61m.
Members of the Sikh community, known for its generosity to needy people across the city, say they are “in shock” and “broken hearted” at the loss of their gathering place.
But the man behind the sale says it became inevitable after “internal bickering” and lack of financial support made the temple unsustainable.
The Helensvale Gurdwara Sahib, on an 8300sq m site on Shepparton Road, had been open just over two years when it was sold in July to the Coptic Orthodox Church.
The temple was sold by the Gold Coast Sikh Foundation, a private company directed and ultimately owned by accountant Surjit Ahluwalia Singh.
Local Sikhs tried to stop the sale by staging a peaceful protest and online campaign. They also made two offers to buy the property from Mr Singh’s foundation, but were unable to raise or borrow enough money to go through with a sale.
As the community rallied against the sale in May, the temple was closed to worshippers. They have nowhere else to gather.
Mr Singh, 41, carried the Queen’s Baton in the 2018 Commonwealth Games relay and as proponent of the new temple he rubbed shoulders with the city’s top politicians, including Member for Fadden Stuart Robert who awarded the project a $20,000 federal government grant in 2019.
Mr Singh said his foundation had taken out a $2.25m Bendigo Bank loan towards the $5.38m land and building costs and that he and his companies made up the difference.
“It was my dream that once the loan was paid that I would be able to gift the site and the building to the community,” he said.
“In the end, the community did not wish to keep using the site or contributing to the costs, so I was left with no choice but to sell the building.”
Where did the donations go?
Property records show Mr Singh’s Gold Coast Sikh Foundation bought the land at Helensvale for $650,000 in 2016.
While the Helensvale property was registered in the name of the private foundation, donations and grants were collected through a registered charity, the Gold Coast Sikh Council, founded by Mr Singh and directed by him until 2019.
Mr Singh’s email address this week remained the registered point of contact for the charity, whose current directors include his parents, Kamal and Jagat Singh.
Mr Singh said his foundation leased the temple to the Sikh council, which was created to receive donations for the rent and operational costs.
“Neither the members of the Sikh Community nor Gold Coast Sikh Council Ltd made any contribution to the costs of acquiring the land and building the temple,” Mr Singh said via email.
“Fit outs for airconditioning equipment and installation, audio visual equipment, carpet installation, kitchen installation and any joinery were all done to the specifications of Gold Coast Sikh Council and those costs were met by Gold Coast Sikh Foundation from its borrowings.”
Mr Singh said the Gold Coast Sikh Council received “a little under $1 million” in donations over four years and reiterated none of that money was used to build the temple.
During its public fundraising while Mr Singh was a director, the Sikh council was not clear about what the donations would be used for.
A flyer for the Sikh council, which appeared on fundraising platform mycause.com.au, requested “urgent financial assistance to raise the much-needed balance to complete” the temple.
“Unfortunately, as each stage completes, the expenses to pay also increase … and our available funds are now very low!,” the flyer, which featured photos of the unfinished temple, said.
“The Sangat (congregation) is eagerly awaiting our opening scheduled for March 2019, however without the necessary funding we will be forced to delay our project.”
The bank details for the registered Sikh council charity appear on the flyer.
Another website, goldcoastsikhtemple.com.au, which domain records show was registered by Mr Singh, also gives the impression that donations to the Sikh council were to be used for both the development and establishment of the temple.
“The Gold Coast Sikh Council ... will build and operate the Gold Coast Sikh Temple & Community Education Centre on behalf of the community,” the site said.
“Accordingly, the Gold Coast Sikh Council is now seeking funding from the community to cover the costs associated with the development and establishment of the Gold Coast Sikh Temple & Community Education Centre.”
That website provided bank details for the Gold Coast Sikh Cultural Fund, saying the project had an estimated cost of $3.65m.
Sale proceeds gone
An email from Mr Singh said the proceeds of the sale of the temple had been used to pay off the Bendigo Bank loan on the property as well as towards the real estate agent’s commission and legal costs.
The email said proceeds had also gone towards repaying loans made by Mr Singh and his associated companies to the Gold Coast Sikh Foundation.
As a private company, the foundation is not required to publicly disclose its financial records, which Mr Singh said were not yet complete for 2021.
Temple built at “arm’s length”
The Gold Coast Sikh Foundation’s ultimate holding company, Singh Holdings, which is solely directed and owned by Mr Singh, also owns his interior design business Surjio Ceanee.
Surjio Ceanee boasted on Instagram of completing the project management and design of the temple.
However, Mr Singh said contractors for the temple were “engaged on an arms-length basis and neither (he) nor his associated companies were engaged in the building of the temple”.
He said Surjio Ceanee was not paid for work on the development.
Sikhs win, then lose, Coast’s first temple
Back in 2017, the Sikh community was relatively new to the city and had been meeting in rented community halls.
Members were delighted when the offer of a purpose-built temple was made with the promise of it being an asset for everyone.
A member of the community, who did not want to be named, this week said the congregation was “in shock” at what had unfolded since.
“They never said it would be a single owner or anything like that and we happily said we would help,” he said.
“Donations for the temple came from all over – from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
“At the groundbreaking day $50,000 was raised and another $50,000 was raised on the opening day.
“Another $40,000-$50,000 was raised at each of our special days as well – for the fireworks night for Diwali, New Year and the Foundation Day of Sikh.
“(Surjit Singh) was in a video saying he’d raised $1m.”
Members were stunned on April 30 when a relative of Surjit Singh announced that the temple would be sold.
“We tried to collect money to save the temple, but none of the banks would give us that much. We couldn’t do it,” the member said.
“The community is in shock right now, it’s breaking everyone’s hearts.”
Charity statements late
Until queried by the Gold Coast Bulletin, the Sikh council had never lodged an information statement with the Australian Charities and Not-for Profits Commission.
This week it lodged documents for 2018 and 2019, stating it had received $273,778 in donations and $20,000 in government funding over the two years, and had spent $217,231.
The council’s financial report and annual information statements, which were due by January 31, remain overdue, with Mr Singh saying they were “in the process of being audited”.
Mr Singh is the founder of a second charity, the Gold Coast Sikh Cultural Fund, which as of last week, had lodged one statement in five years.
The fund lodged its overdue statements after Mr Singh was contacted by the Bulletin.
In the 2017-18 financial year, the fund reported donations of $158,674 and expenses of just $604. It reported assets of $237,439.
In 2018-19 the fund reported $68,884 in donations, $597 in expenses and $305,726 in assets.
The latest statement, for 2019-20, showed the cultural fund received donations of $3731. It made a donation of $308,000 and had other expenses of $312, leaving its assets at $1145.
An email from the cultural fund said it had donated the $308,000 to the Gold Coast Sikh Council’s School Building Fund.
Directors of the cultural fund are Jagdish Singh and Kamal Singh, while Jagat Singh is named trustee.
The ACNC declined to comment on the organisations, directing anyone with a complaint to lodge it online.
“Internal bickering”, “activists” killed the dream
Mr Singh said he’d actively helped the community’s attempts to establish a temple for more than a decade, “but all efforts came to nothing largely because of personality issues, internal bickering, disunity, lack of financial resources, disorganisation and lack of leadership”.
So he decided to lead the project himself, buying the land and gaining pre-application approval from Gold Coast City Council before revealing his plans to his community.
“I had hoped that having their own temple would be a unifying force among the Sikh community. Those hopes proved to be in vain,” he told the Bulletin.
“The community was supportive for a time, but it was not long until the same old personality issues, jealousy and bickering re-emerged and support for the temple was white-anted.
“As a result, funding for Gold Coast Sikh Council dried up and attendances at temple functions and events fell away.”
Mr Singh said donations, many of which had been received via money boxes in the temple, evaporated.
“After a time, Gold Coast Sikh Council started missing rent payments,” he said.
“Gold Coast Sikh Foundation provided concessions and extensions of time to try to assist but eventually it became clear that those who opposed the temple had destroyed the support which it had in the community.”
Geelong-born Mr Singh said the rivalries came to a head around the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021, sparked by politics in India.
Indians worldwide joined protests, while 250 million Indians in India went on strike after the country’s parliament introduced laws governing the way farmers sold their produce to big corporations.
Mr Singh said activists on the Gold Coast sought to “politicise the temple” over the issue and “matters became intense”.
He said by March prayer hall congregations for Saturday worship had dwindled to single figures.
“I published a video on Facebook in which I explained that if the community did not support the temple, it would not be able to continue and would be closed down,” Mr Singh said.
“Nothing changed. My vision had failed.”
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