Repubblika has sent a Memorandum to the Malta Council for the Voluntary Sector regarding new VO public collections and VO charity shops regulations.

The Civil Society Movement said that it “appreciates the need to ensure that financial criminals are not permitted to avail themselves of the vehicle of voluntary organisations to act as fronts to cover their crimes.”

However, “we find that the regulations introduced under the Voluntary Organisations Act in September 2020 fail to introduce measures that can realistically contribute to a clampdown on money laundering and financial crime,” it said.

It argued that, “even as they fail in what appears to be their primary justification, the new regulations suffocate fundamental freedoms of law-abiding citizens preventing them from associating or from freely expressing their views.”

Repubblika stated that, “the regulations published in September 2020 are burdensome and intrusive. They ignore the fact that NGOs that are enrolled with the Commissioner for Voluntary Organisations already provide information about their financial activities.”

“New measures such as permits to raise funds or to engage volunteers are unnecessary and do nothing to help flush out money laundering,” it said.

“Similarly,” it said, “rules on collections using collection jars and home-dropped envelopes, raffles and collections during mass events make the processes impractical. The new rules increase time and cost in bureaucratic procedures and reduce access for law-abiding voluntary organisations to donations that are fully compliant with the law.”

The Movement also argued that, “these measures will suffocate genuine NGOs such as cultural, sports and charity organisations but will do nothing to combat financial crime.”

Repubblika went on to say that the regulations also empower the government to “sanction, censor and in effect ban NGOs who express views or campaign for policies that the government disagrees with or disapproves of.”

The memorandum can be read in full in English by clicking here to download.

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