For five years SR presided over the two boards. He had a stake in the nation and the system others had created. He had assisted Singapore's founding fathers in their creation. He was not going to let a part of it, however small, rot. When he took over, he knew what was going on in the temples in Singapore. Having spent a significant part of his career helping to maintain law and order in the country, it was natural that he should focus first on housekeeping. Three practices bothered him. Submission of HEB accounts was late for five years. Cash collections at the four temples were taken to a shop in Serangoon Road and deposited in the bank after some time. He needed a trained and dedicated book-keeper to bring that practice to an end and set up proper procedures, and to bring the accounts up to date. At the time, construction of Ruthra Kaliamman Temple was the buzz in the Hindu community. His old friend from Muar, Rasiah, was very much involved in building that temple. He asked Rasiah who were helping him with the project. Rasiah introduced VR as the treasurer. When asked by SR, on behalf of HEB, whether VR could help out at HEB as well, VR said he would, but he would like to hand over his responsibilities at Ruthra Kaliamman Temple to someone before joining HEB as he could not possibly shoulder both responsibilities. Pretty soon, he did.

The third problem bugging HEB was the way HEB properties were being managed. Early tenants like Govindasamy Pillai were paying a nominal rent to HEB and subletting the shops to new tenants paying commercial rents. HEB did not have enough money to carry out sorely needed repairs to the properties. In short, the rental returns to HEB were extremely poor and the properties needed urgent repairs. SR got three members who were Hindu Singaporean businessmen of repute with a track record of success in business over the years – S Chandra Das, Gopinath Pillai and Satpal Khattar – to address this problem.

The priority was to address the problem of accounts. The main reason for the non-submission of accounts was that the then secretary of HEB, P Arumainathan, Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Science and Technology, had a stroke from which he never fully recovered. His successors were also unable to address the problems.