Voluntary organisations are significant players in Maltese society. Whether it is a band club, an amateur football club, a bocci club or a village festa committee, the fulfilment of the overall objective of the club is achieved because the club is run by members who are totally devoted to that objective. Needless to say, with the increased commitments in our life styles, getting members to sit on a committee is proving to be difficult year-in year-out. Although certain organisations do manage to attract young talent to that voluntary organisation (VO), most of them disappear when they start settling in their personal lives. However, such young talent would be more comfortable in taking part in some hands-on activity rather than shouldering the administrative burden of the VO they belong to.

As a certified public accountant, I have always been adamant that VOs have to be fully accountable not only to their members but also to the public at large. Indeed, they are accountable to the public at large because in the course of their endeavours they raise funds from the general public. I fully agree that for any VO to be eligible to attract funds from central government it has to be registered with the Commissioner for Voluntary Organisations (CVO) and also fully compliant with the provisions of the law.

A glimpse at the introductory pages of the CVO’s 2012 Annual Report reveals the following:

“The year 2012 has been characterised by the Commissioner for Voluntary Organisation’s efforts to focus on legislation. Extensive work has been carried out to publish the Annual Returns and Annual Accounts Regulations by means of Legal Notice 73 published in February 2012, which was later amended and Legal Notice 379 was later published in November 2012. These regulations assist the CVO Office in overseeing that voluntary organisations are accountable and transparent and are in compliance with the VOA. Nevertheless, due to lack of staff and expertise [emphasis added], the actual monitoring of the contents of the Annual Returns and Annual Accounts has not yet begun. It is envisaged that this situation will improve in early 2013.”

I am particularly struck by the words ‘due to lack of staff and expertise’ because this is, indeed, also the situation that existing voluntary organisations have had to put up with. Apart from training the treasurer of the musical society in basic accounting skills, I was president of the King’s Own Band Club and have, over the years, assisted voluntarily other musical societies.

Increased regulation of whatever form it takes means increased expenditure. Sometimes such expenditure is considered to be unnecessary as VOs would rather spend that money on a just cause which helps them fulfil better their mission statement. Submitting accounting information in a prescribed format is highly beneficial to safeguard the notion of accountability and transparency. However, one has to bear in mind that there are numerous permutations of how accounting information is drawn up and presented to members at annual general meetings. I am currently supervising a dissertation document that is primarily about the different ways that accounting information is presented by Maltese band clubs. It is already evident that most do not make any distinction between revenue and capital expenditure. While that might be acceptable for cash flow information, it is equally important to apply accruals based accounting for stewardship purposes. At times I also engage in providing technical expertise relating to taxation matters, recognising the great need of educating those involved.

Unfortunately, there has never been any form of assistance to our VOs. I strongly believe that it is useless to proceed further in regulating our voluntary organisations without providing them with the technical expertise they need. I feel that they would be better off if someone had to show them what is required of them. I take the opportunity of this contribution to suggest that a separate voluntary organisation be setup, possibly funded by the government itself, with the clear mandate of assisting the other voluntary organisations in stream lining their accounting function. The same voluntary organisation could also support the CVO with the necessary expertise to supervise that the registered VOs are fulfilling their statutory obligations.

The strategy of supporting our VOs should not only apply to financial matters. I am also adamant that this should extend to mutual support. In the course of my campaigning to become one of Malta’s representatives in the European Parliament, I have come across a ridiculous situation where one particular VO entrusted with the upkeep of our heritage assets felt it appropriate to levy a charge on another VO to take a photo on location. I have no problem with charges being levied on individuals and commercial entities that seek to utilise our heritage assets for personal or commercial use. I do, however, find it somewhat unfair to levy charges on other VOs. At most there should be a policy of asking the other VOs for a donation leaving it to its discretion.

In the process of regulating our VOs I must reiterate that there should be a process of educating those involved as to what is to be expected of them. It is imperative to bear in mind that whoever is entrusted as an official in the VO he/she belongs to, they are indeed occupying that post on a voluntary basis because they feel attached to the objective/mission statement of the entity. The last thing they would want to deal with is unnecessary bureaucracy which could only hinder the VO in question to attract new people to the committee.

Establishing new VOs to offer support on accounting and taxation matters to existing ones could very easily ease the pain increased regulation brings with it. The end result would be that the CVO would be receiving more accurate data which is the result of one VO having supported another one.

Ivan Grixti is a Labour Party candidate in the forthcoming European parliamentary elections