A plan unveiled yesterday by the Law Reform Commission to create a 'one-stop shop' watchdog to oversee the city's charities was generally welcomed by the welfare sector but likened by one leading social service group to the unpopular Article 23 security bill.
The new Charity Commission, aimed at filling a legal vacuum in regulating the surging number of fund-raising groups, would process and grant licences for organisations that raise money and enjoy tax exemption, while also having the power to de-register charities and change their trustees or directors.
'There are approximately 6,000 charities that raise around HK$8 billion a year in Hong Kong, but there is no comprehensive legal framework regulating charitable organisations and the use of donations,' Law Reform Commission charities sub-committee chairman Bernard Chan said. 'At present, members of the public find it hard to know if an organisation representing itself as a charity is in fact a charity at all.'
Under the proposal, put forward for public consultation until September 16, charities would have to register with the watchdog and file annual reports with details of their main activities and accounting records that the public could see.
As well as de-registering offending charities, the new commission would be able to appoint additional trustees or directors and remove those it deemed guilty of misconduct or mismanagement. Fund-raising activities by political groups would not be regulated as they are not classified as charities, while the public will be asked whether human rights groups should be recognised as charities.
Christine Fang Meng-sang, chief executive of the Hong Kong Council of Social Service, an umbrella group for 320 non-government organisations, supported the proposal.
'The welfare sector has to move forward with the times and there should be some sort of regulation over charities,' she said.