List of L-Istrina beneficiaries remains under wraps

The 18 organisations chosen to benefit from the €2.3 million raised during L-Istrina remain unknown, one month after the Boxing Day charity event took place.

Despite repeated requests for the list of beneficiaries, the Office of the President has not yet made the information public. The last request was made on Monday but to no avail. L-Istrina was this year organised by the Malta Community Chest Fund, which is chaired by the President.

The money collected is meant to be shared between the MCCF and a number of other organisations, which apply beforehand.

Meanwhile, the Council for the Voluntary Sector, which brings together hundreds of voluntary organisations enrolled with the NGO Commissioner, has asked for a meeting with President George Abela to discuss the controversy that arose after the event. The meeting is scheduled to take place this week.

Days after L-Istrina, NGO Commissioner Kenneth Wain had called on the MCCF to enrol as a voluntary organisation, since receiving state benefits without enrolling was tantamount to preferential treatment.

The President's Office said the MCCF was not legally bound to enrol while the Attorney General went a step further, saying that even if it wanted to, it was not legally able to do so.

One benefit of enrolment is that organisations can collect money freely and distribute it to whoever they want, including organisations that are not enrolled.

Each year, the list of chosen beneficiaries is publicised beforehand so people can know who the money is going to and the proportion they would be receiving. But this year the list never featured in any of the press releases about the event, nor on the websites of L-Istrina or the MCCF.

Distributing the proceeds of last year's L-Istrina to 16 organisations in late October, the President said the MCCF received 48 applications in 2009 and 18 beneficiaries had been chosen, without mentioning them by name.

The only time some of the organisations were mentioned was during the L-Istrina programme itself when volunteers of some of the organisations were interviewed in the video clips broadcast.

The Office of the President said: "These beneficiaries have not only been identified but have been duly informed by the Malta Community Chest Fund board that they were going to be this year's beneficiaries of L-Istrina."

However, several requests and a full month later, the list has still not been released and no public explanation given. Contacted by The Times, several organisations that were beneficiaries in the past and had applied for funds said they had not been selected this year.