Kamla rejects bill on charities

OPPOSITION Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar yesterday told the Government to re-work its “draconian and unconstitutional” bill that stops the use of charities for terrorist financing or money laundering, or else the Opposition would seek to strike it down in the High Court.

She responded to Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi who had piloted the bill in the House of Representatives, the Non-Profit Organisations Bill 2019.

Saying the group Fishermen and Friends of the Sea had complained the bill could be used as a tool against NGOs to stop them protesting, Persad-Bissessar likened the bill to using a shotgun against a butterfly. Alleging the bill had come to the House like a thief in the night, she said inadequate public consultation had taken place and that the AG's speech had ignored the thousands of citizens who ran charitable groups.

Persad-Bissessar said that rather than tackling little non-profit groups, the Government should focus on private companies set up for profit.

“Why don’t you bring them in, people with $23 million companies? Follow the money! But you are coming after the small man.”

Persad-Bissessar objected to the bill deeming the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) to be the regulator of non-profit organisations, alleging it was a conflict of interest for a body to be both an investigator and regulator.

Rather than the FIU as regulator, she urged the bill follow the British example and have an independent Charities Commission.

Persad-Bissessar said the UK had changed its law on charity regulation in 2006 to create a tribunal to resolve conflicts and so avoid the problems posed by having to go to court. She quarrelled that one clause on forfeiture mandated a judge to take away someone’s property, whereas the judge should always have a discretion. “This section is entirely unconstitutional.” Citing the reformed individuals at Vision on a Mission who now help others, she objected to the bill’s ban on a person jailed for three years from running charities.

At one point Persad-Bissessar accused Al-Rawi of “constant babbling” and said if he could stay quiet he might learn something.

She reckoned the bill’s goal was to satisfy demands from some international entity. “If you should succeed in passing it with your majority, we will challenge it in court. Go back to your stakeholder consultations or put it in JSC. Those are the two options.”

Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal scoffed at the bill by asking aloud what were the chances of a group such as the Barrackpore Police Youth Club being used to fund terrorism. Saying the bill would unduly shake up the entire non-profit organisation sector just to try to catch a few delinquent groups, he related, “From building construction, I know you mustn’t shake a building to find out why it is still standing.” Referring to a fund he had set up to receive donations from well-wishers for his legal costs against a lawsuit by the Prime Minister, Moonilal quipped the bill would deem him to be a controller of a non-profit group, adding, “I’m now being banned.”