The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE Minnis administration gave the Bahamas Christian Council a 30-day extension on the obligation for churches to produce their financial records in accordance with non-profit organisation regulations, The Tribune was told.

It is not clear if this extension was given to all none-profit organisations (NPOs), not just churches.

BCC President Bishop Delton Fernander told The Tribune yesterday his organisation met with Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis and discussed the matter with him. He suggested Dr Minnis sympathised with his concerns.

"He kind of agreed that some churches were called and others were not, that the list was a bit biased," he said, referring to the fact that a notice published in newspapers demanding that non-profit organisations comply with the regulations listed only some churches and not others from certain denominations.

Bishop Fernander said the BCC will meet with Attorney General Carl Bethel on Thursday to get an update on how the administration will handle its concerns about bias.

"Some churches were given state status through acts of Parliament and so it means they are not answerable to this legislation," he said. "That's what's being said to us. But we need to create a level playing field because you have a few denominations that don't have an act of Parliament. How do we remedy this?"

In April, the Registrar General's Department said the planned review of all non-profits on the registry "is important to ensure that we are in compliance with our international obligations, preventing the use of non-profits in The Bahamas as vehicles for international criminal activity, including terrorism, and protecting our financial industry which is vital to our national development."

Then in July, the department listed in newspapers hundreds of NPOs, including such organisations as the Bahamas Historical Society and the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation, that must submit information that show their purpose, objectives and activities, the source of their annual income, the identities of the people who own, control and direct them and annual financial statements or other financial records that show while also explaining their transactions in and outside The Bahamas.

"…The notice is not intended to allege that any or all NPOs in The Bahamas are engaged in any form of terrorism financing," the Registrar General Department said.

Nonetheless, Bishop Fernander said at the time that other mechanisms already exist that provide oversight of church finances, adding that the government has no need to see the financial records of churches that do not accept money from the state.

"The church has to work with the state but the church will not allow the state to dictate what the church will do," he said. "In this case, it's clearly crossing the line. Usually the state is able to ask for financial records when it takes state funding. If you do not take state funding I don't see how the state should be asking for financial records."