Act will ensure money goes to right place
WITH tighter regulation on the way, those endeavouring to provide assistance to someone in need, are being cautioned by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, that strict registration is on the way. However, the general public are likely to welcome the fact that dubious street open bucket collections are likely to feel the crunch.
Welcoming the new legislation, Maria Kelly, chief executive of Limerick chamber says:
“Supporting charity, particularly in these times, is something we should all strive to do and it seems with this Act we will have the security of knowing that money will be going to the right place”.
Explaining the type of charitable activity that will, in future be required to register, Aidan Clifford, of ACCA, gives as an example:
“A friend gets ill in the US, he is uninsured, his medical bills are huge, so friends here in Ireland do a whip-around to raise the cash to bring him home, but the organiser of the whip-around is prosecuted for being an unregistered charity”.
Sounds unfair, but according to Mr Clifford, the Charity Act 2009, will make illegal many of the current charitable activities in this country.
“The informal charitable collection, open bucket collection and even the sale of fake mass cads, will be banned under the Act and all charities will have to be registered, possess clearly stated charitable aims, prepare and file annual financial statements and nearly all will be required to have an audit”.
The ACCA spokesperson said that charities in this country are almost totally unregulated at present and that this has presented the opportunity to abuse the generosity of Irish people.
Mr Clifford said that street collections for bogus charities and clothing that are supposed to be for charitable purposes, but are being diverted to commercial organisations, are two examples.
“The Charity Act will change all of this and bring transparency and regularity to the sector, and it will require that all charities be registered, file annual accounts and subject to certain limits, have their accounts audited annually”.
Conceding that the Act may well restrict genuine causes, which will now be restricted and may find the paperwork involved too much, Mr Clifford said: “The small local collection for the medical bills of an uninsured migrant in the US, that we are all familiar with, will be illegal without registration, formal accounts and audit, and the students who have a cake sale for a local or charitable cause will be acting illegally if they do not have a formal set of charitable rules, registration and formality”.
ACCA contends that while mainstream charities operating to the highest standards will have no difficulty in complying with the Act, it is the smaller, less formal ones that will find the requirements onerous and that the informal charitable collections will all but disappear.
“It is a substantial price to pay to remove the bogus charities, but one that is unavoidable,” concluded Mr Clifford.
The Charity Act has been passed by both houses of the Oireachtas and signed into law by the President Charities are totally unregulated at present with the only requirement being that they register with the Revenue for Charitable Status.
