NGOs Commissioner: 'I was never informed about organisations' exemption'

NGOs Commissioner Kenneth Wain said he never received a letter informing him of the exemption given to a number of Church organisations and individuals, and the first time he had heard about the letter was through the press and a statement issued yesterday by the Department of Information.

Wain was reacting to a statement issued yesterday by the Foreign Affairs Ministry, following a complaint made by Wain over the allocation of Overseas Development Aid funds to seven organisations and four individuals who were not enrolled with the office of the Commissioner for Voluntary Organisations.

Wain's main concern had been with the fact that non-enrolled organisations were not subject to the transparency requirements of the law.

But in a reaction, the Foreign Affairs Ministry said that Justice Minister Chris Said had exempted the seven organisations.

"I was never copied in such letter or in any way informed of the exemption until I read about it in the press and in the DOI statement, otherwise I would have not published yesterday's press statement to begin with," Wain said in a statement issued today.

"This is confirmed by the fact that the letter reproduced by the DOI is not copied to me. Copying letters of exemption to the Commissioner is standard procedure given the Commissioner's role as regulator according to Article 7 of the law, and such procedure has always been observed by the relevant Minister in the past," Wain said.

Wain added that when on a previous occasion the Commissioner complained to the Foreign Affairs Minister by letter, in June, about the distribution of the ODA fund to non-enrolled organisations for 2011, the Ministry had said that there was an exemption by the Minister of Education, Employment and Family.

Wain had replied that he was "copying this letter to the Hon. Minister (MEEF) for copies of exemptions in line with the usual practice."

"No such letters of exemption were ever confirmed or received by this office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was informed of this by letter, on 29th December 2011 when the Commissioner complained yet again following the Ministry's Press Release inviting expressions of interest for the ODA fund 2012."

Wain said that such circumstances drove him to issue yesterday's press statement and added that he had never claimed power - as stated in the Foreign Affair's Ministry's statement - over individual beneficiaries.

"What the press statement expressed was my concern about the 'wisdom of giving such benefits to individuals' on grounds of accountability," Wain said.