The National Federation of NGOs backed Voluntary Organisations Commissioner Kenneth Wain’s call for an end to a “discriminatory” situation where organisations were given state funding despite not being officially registered.

In his annual report for 2009, Prof. Wain outlined the difficulties encountered in a tumultuous year where problems arose with Church organisations and the Malta Community Chest Fund, which refused to enrol. The federation said it believed that registered NGOs had a duty to follow legislation and a right to benefit from it.

“We fully agree with the commissioner that to benefit from our status as registered NGOs, including receiving public funds, we are in duty bound to follow a legislation that primarily requires adequate measures for ensuring transparency and proper use of said funds.”

Such adherence to the law, it said, required that organisations put resources into internal auditing measures to prepare accounts for the commission.

“Unfortunately, many NGOs still see their registration under the Act as a duty, with little benefit in return. Some do not receive public funding or raise funds publicly because of the nature of their organisation. Furthermore, the option to register with the police for public fund-raising further removes the benefit of registering with the VOC.”

It, therefore, called for “tangible benefits for registration,” including access to funds and EU schemes which are not open to non-registered entities and the commission’s support by the commission, together with a common method of dealing with such issues, with the commissioner being allowed to do his job as regulator in the mean time.