The Tribune

By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

THE LATEST iteration of the stalled Non-Profit Organisations Bill features a simplified registration form and allows for umbrella organisations and federations to register on behalf of affiliates.

Attorney General Carl Bethel yesterday stressed the draft bill was not set in stone and still needed more work before it was released for consultation.

This would mean that entities like the Christian Council will be tasked with certifying the compliance of smaller churches in keeping financial records and producing annual statements.

“We’re looking at light touch regulations with a very much simplified registration form,” he said, “and we are looking at the possibility of exploring, we’re working on something to the effect that national or regional or district conventions or federations etc, can register on behalf of their constituent entities, clubs, sporting associations - that their actual organising bodies can basically enter and register on their behalf.”

Mr Bethel continued: “This is not set in stone; the draft is being worked on. The idea would be that responsible national organisations provide that degree of certification, and only then if some issue should arise, something comes on the radar, some suspicious transaction report comes forward, or query from abroad, would we have to have some inquiry with individual organisations registered in this way.”

He spoke to The Tribune after giving the Senate an update on the delayed bill.

Last month, Mr Bethel told Tribune Business that the Christian Council and Bahamian churches were seeking “a complete exemption” from the Non-Profit Organisations Bill and its provisions despite his agreement to make the legislation less onerous and “more user friendly”.

Civil Society Bahamas, a group of 300 non-profit and civil society groups, also put forward arguments last month highlighting numerous sections in the bill that raised significant concerns for the “future health of the civil society sector”.

The consortium group warned many organisations will be unable to meet “the strict registration, accounting and record keeping demands” set out in the bill given that 40 percent of the industry is thought to operate on an annual budget of $25,000 or less.

The group also questioned whether the registrar of non-profit organisations had the capacity to be converted from an information gatherer to a regulator, expressing fears that the legislation will exacerbate the current two-year wait for non-profit registration into “a significant backlog.”

“If we are able to achieve that (draft bill),” Mr Bethel continued yesterday, “coupled with the cap or the threshold of having to get in more than $75k income a year, that will capture most if not all of the smaller churches who in some cases it won’t apply to.

“They will still have to register but if Christian Council certifies they are keeping financial records and adds them to their list, all they have to do is show their bank the Christian Council has them listed.

“This is not cut in stone, this is a draft we are working on which we think will provide light touch regulations. At the end of the day the law will mandate that every non-profit will keep financial records. It still has to be worked on and agreed.”

Last December, opposition to the bill led Mr Bethel to postpone debate in the Senate. It has already been passed in the House of Assembly.