The Tribune

LACKING in resources, suffering a cut in government funding, sometimes loudly criticised publicly – it’s a wonder that Bahamian non-profit groups are able to do their work at all.

Worse, many such groups find themselves so tangled up in red tape. In fact, before the Non-Profit Organisations Act 2019 was passed, it could take between three and seven years to be able to be registered under the Companies Act.

Imagine how that works – a group of concerned citizens identifies a problem that they feel they can come together to resolve, but it takes years and years before they can jump through the regulatory hoops in order to actually tackle the problem they wanted to deal with.

In some cases, that could be far too late for any action to be effective at all, even if those involved had maintained the determination to keep going over all that time.

One group during the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian was in discussions to receive a grant from the United Nations to help with the recovery effort – but months of work were lost because of how that group was categorised under the Companies Act, and the process of applying for the grant had to start from scratch. That money could have been of instant help to people after Dorian – but we tied ourselves up in red tape.

For many groups, they find themselves setting up without being formally incorporated – which proves a challenge for received donations, or even setting up a bank account.

One organisation found it took them a year to become registered as a not-for-profit body, then ten more months to receive a licence, and then even more months to open a bank account.

Still other groups find themselves confused about how the process of registering even works. One group was quoted $3,000 to have the paperwork done for them, but was uncertain and decided to keep operating informally.

All of this has emerged from a report commissioned by the Organisation for Responsible Governance (ORG) – and highlights the difficulties faced in the non-profit and volunteer sectors.

It is not just small groups that find they experience such problems – even international bodies have tried to become registered and had trouble doing so.

This is a problem in two areas – for the groups concerned it is a hindrance to being able to raise funds and carry out their work, while from the perspective of authorities it makes it a harder area to regulate and monitor. A group that carries on informally is not subject to the closer eye that might be necessary to ensure actions are being carried out properly.

The good news is that there have been improvements since the 2019 Act was implemented, but there are still challenges with areas such as VAT waivers or other tax breaks and an inconsistency on how decisions are made.

Better is at least the right direction – but we hope the government pays close heed to the findings of this report, and looks to remove the road blocks that get in the way when it comes to organisations that are simply looking to improve the lives of Bahamians.