Singapore Charities Act to be tightened with proposed amendments
More power for Commissioner to query fund-raisers and IPCs
By JAMIE LEE
THE government is tightening up on fund-raisers and institutions of a public character (IPCs) with more proposed amendments to the Charities Act.
The amendments, which follow an earlier round last year, would empower the Commissioner of Charities to gather information on fund-raisers other than charities and call for inquiries and suspension of board members of IPCs, the Office of the Commissioner of Charities said yesterday.
It would also look to boost accounting standards for charities and fund-raising regulations, and clarify the roles of board members of charitable organisations and IPCs.
Charities and IPCs that do not comply with accounting standards determined by the Accounting Standards Council (ASC) for charities may be fined up to $10,000, though individual charities and IPCs can be exempted from compliance of certain clauses by the Commissioner of Charities.
The Office of the Commissioner of Charities has also proposed to allow the ASC to determine the income and expenditure thresholds for charities and IPCs that would warrant an external audit. Currently, all IPCs and charities with income or expenditure exceeding $250,000 are subjected to external audits.
In addition, the ministry said it would repeal Part VII of the Charities Act and transfer relevant provisions to the fund-raising regulations. These include a prohibition on professional fund-raiser raising money for a charitable institution without an agreement in the prescribed form. Such professionals must also indicate the institutions benefiting and the remuneration arrangements.
Part VII had not been brought into operation, despite it being part of the Act since 1994, as ‘there was then no need to regulate fund-raising’, the Office of the Commissioner of Charities said in a media release. It added that in recent years, there have been more questions raised on accountability in commercial fund-raising.
Fund-raisers that are not charities could also be forced to provide information needed for any inquiries by the Commissioner of Charities, as ‘occasionally, the need to conduct further investigation on fund-raisers following public complaints may be thwarted by the unwillingness of the fund-raiser to furnish the Commissioner with information’, it said.
The Office of Commissioner of Charities is also proposing to extend its jurisdiction to include ‘instigating inquiry and invoking protective actions such as the suspension or removal of board members, as in the case of charities’.
It has suggested adding a provision to protect governing board members and employees at charities from personal liability to assuage the ‘perceived risks’ in the light of recent controversies in the charity circuit that has deterred volunteers, as well as replacing the term ‘charity trustees’ to distinguish between them and those who have obligations towards the Trustees Act.
Source : Business Times - 04 Sept 2008
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