My Take | Government too charitable to charities
After being rounded on for the lax supervision of publicly subsidised charities and welfare NGOs, the home affairs chief has promised a government website that will carry audited accounts and a good practice guideline that is entirely voluntary. How reassuring
When pressed to act, the government often does a bit of window-dressing and then claims mission accomplished.
After being rounded on by the director of audit and a Legislative Council committee for the lax supervision of publicly subsidised charities and welfare NGOs, home affairs chief Lau Kong-wah promised to do something about it.
The results: soon you will be able to look up the audited accounts of charities on a government website; and a good practice guideline that is entirely voluntary. What if a charity doesn’t adopt the new guideline? The bureau says it doesn’t necessarily indicate a problem. How reassuring!
Why would anyone bother looking up a charity’s financial accounts? Isn’t that the job of regulators? We don’t have such officials, of course, even though it was proposed years ago by the Law Reform Commission to set up a statutory monitoring body.
The only ones with some responsibility are the bureau, the Social Welfare Department, Inland Revenue as well as the Lands Department, which grants land to some charities. But they are part of the problem.