Gospel for Asia, the mission organisation founded by KP Yohannan, has had its Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability membership terminated after over a year of controversy.

Blogger Warren Throckmorton revealed yesterday that the ECFA had announced the termination on its website "due to failure to comply with multiple ECFA standards".

Throckmorton has listed the specific standards allegedly breached by GFA, which include governance, financial oversight and truthfulness in communications.

GFA was a charter member of the ECFA, making its removal a significant development. The evangelical watchdog was founded in 1979 as an accreditation organisation to police the financial integrity of Christian organisations. Membership is regarded as a stamp of approval by donors.

Christian Today had previously reported that GFA was being investigated following criticism over its claimed lack of transparency and inconsistencies in its account of how funds are distributed.

Former employees have accused the organisation of using "spiritually abusive" practices, and a ritual involving the kissing of KP Yohannan's ring.

Throckmorton claimed in August that GFA had hired a reputation management company to counterbalance negative stories appearing about it as a result of these revelations by former staff.

A company called Reputation Management Consultants, which creates websites specifically in order to manipulate Google search results, was apparently paid thousands of dollars to make sure positive stories appeared further up search lists.