The Commissioner for Voluntary Organisations has warned that his Office is unable to fulfil its duties due to an acute staff shortage, a “crisis” which has not been addressed despite having been flagged by his predecessor in 2017.

“Authorities seem to be totally unconcerned with the need to abide by the [Voluntary Organisations] Act and getting approval for even three additional staff is an unsurmountable obstacle incapacitating the workings of the Office and the need to carry out the necessary investigations as requested and required by Moneyval and the Auditor General,” Anthony Abela Medici lamented.

Dr Abela Medici sounded the alarm bells in his 2018 annual report, in which he gave an overview of his first few months in office,  after succeeding Prof. Kenneth Wain in May last year.

He remarked that last year brought about new responsibilities and obligations for the Office with respect to the fight against money laundering and terrorism. Moreover, new legislation obliging all voluntary organisations to enrol with the Office meant that the administrative capacity had to be beefed up to cater for the added workload. 

In view of this, the NGO watchdog required lawyers, accountants and officers in order to investigate and scrutinise the annual returns submitted by the 1,600 organisations enrolled with it.

According to the commissioner, his Office needs at least 30 persons to fill these roles but at the moment could only count on seven employees, excluding himself.

He said the need to increase staff had been also highlighted in a performance audit carried out last year by the Auditor General.

Office needs at least 30 persons to fill these roles but at the moment could only count on seven employee

Despite this acute shortage, the only recruitment made was a lawyer who was released from the Courts of Law to join the Office.

Dr Abela Medici noted that his predecessor had also complained that the Office “had been relegated to an appendage of the ministry it was assigned to and that the whole operations of the Commissioner’s Office were compromised by the constant apathy in recruitment of staff”.

Quoting from the 2017 annual report when Prof. Wain had complained that they had reached “crisis level”, Dr Abela Medici said he was “still finding exactly the same problems”.

“We are still at crisis levels with staff complement not even minimal to address the much broader requirements of the Act,” he remarked.

The NGO’s commissioner reported that the existing shortcomings were even flagged by the Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism (Moneyval) during their mission in Malta last November.

Quoting from the Moneyval report, he said the Office’s annual budget had been increased from €110,000 to €500,000 to be able to boost its staff. However, not a single new person had been allocated to the Office since then despite the lapse of three months.

The budget increase would be pointless if the Office could not recruit staff, he added.

“It is futile to legislate if the enforcement of such legislation is rendered impossible through lack of staff.”