Our dear Siġġiewi home

The director of Id-Dar tal-Providenza, Fr Martin Micallef, and the RTK team have dedicated a lot of their precious time and efforts over the last months in organising another successful fund-raising event, which, once again, turned out to be a great success.

Fr Martin carries out his duties with utmost respect, dedication and, above all, a great passion. He is definitely a very dedicated person who has proved himself beyond the boundaries of my quaint village.

No doubt, his great efforts to collect as much money as possible for this humble cause of helping disabled persons in Malta has hit the four corners of the country. Undoubtedly, he has capabilities that surpass those found in the ordinary man.

The Siġġiewi community and the public at large must surely have only words of encouragement and endearment for such performance. Those who were present at the Siġġiewi Home on New Year's Day could appreciate all the hard work that was involved in getting such an act together. It was a great pleasure to see a lot of locals giving a helping hand during the event. There was a sense of unity and serenity that prevailed throughout the Open Day!

By strict definition of the law, it appears that any voluntary organisation (not least, Id-Dar tal-Providenza) needs to be registered with the Commissioner of Voluntary Organisations in terms of section 4 of chapter 492 of the laws of Malta in order to be able to enjoy the privileges falling under that same law. More to the point, organisations can benefit from free airtime on state television only if they are enrolled with the commissioner in terms of the said law.

For this reason, it was argued in the media that the transmission of the event by the public broadcaster was illegal because it appears that the Siġġiewi Home is not registered with the Commissioner of Voluntary Organisations in terms of section 4 of chapter 492 of the laws of Malta.

It seems, however, that there is more than one law that regulates fund raising in Malta. Public collections can, in fact, be made in terms of the Public Collections Act. Indeed, the director of Id-Dar tal-Providenza followed scrupulously the provisions of article 5 (1) of the Public Collections Act, chapter 279 of the laws of Malta, for he applied for a police licence for such collection. The licence given by the Commissioner of Police for this activity solely depends on his discretion and, once it was forthcoming, then the director had every right to make the public collection according to the permit granted. There is no reason to doubt whether the director followed the conditions mentioned in such licence.

The chairman of PBS is correct to express her tacit consent because this organisation was covered with a police permit. It other words, the fund-raising activity was carried out in strict adherence to the law in any case.

The Maltese people should continue with their charitable deeds and contribute to similar noble causes instead of finding time to disarm such activities. Nonetheless, it is only opportune if the PBS ensures that amendments to its own regulations are in place so that charitable organisations will no longer be put in the line of fire by columnists.

Mr Musumeci is an architect by profession and mayor of Siġġiewi.