The Commissioner for Voluntary Organisations, Prof Kenneth Wain, said today that legal amendments in the pipeline would increase the powers of the Commissioner to investigate NGOs where there was suspicion of wrongdoing such as money laundering.

He said at a meeting of the parliamentary Social Affairs Committee that the registered NGOs had to present an annual report and accounts to the Commissioner. This, he said, was required for transparency.

The amendments proposed in the upcoming legislation would increase the Commissioner’s investigative responsibility where there was suspicion of money-laundering or other wrongdoing by the NGOs.

At the moment, he said, there were about 1000 registered organisations, but many have lapsed registrations. He said that the law needed to provide other regulation such as that for the setting up of Charity shops. 

Referring to the issue of registration of voluntary organisations, Prof Wain said that all NGOs had to register if they wanted to be able to raise funds and benefit from funds. He said that while this was required by law, the Minister may give an exemption. He said that the exemption had now become the rule, but government has agreed to remove this exempting facility.

Prof Wain said that a strong educational campaign needed to be undertaken since, he said, several collections were carried out using the names of established charities but in reality benefited commercial concerns. He said that the public needed to know what forms of redress could be taken  and what to expect form NGOs in fundraising activities. To this end, said Prof Wain, the aim for the near future was to upgrade the services on the website of the Commission.