Anita: Only NGOs can stop bill

OPPOSITION Senator Anita Haynes said a bill to regulate charities can be passed without Opposition support, so the only people who can stop it are the country’s non-government organisations (NGOs.)

At a briefing at the Opposition Leader’s Office in Port of Spain yesterday, she said the Opposition had written to various NGOs to urge them to make their voices heard.

The letter said the Non Profit Organisations Bill 2019 was passed in the House of Representatives and due to be debated in the Senate tomorrow.

The bill sets up a register of such organisations and poses far-reaching consequences to them.

“The bill as presently drafted does not strike a proper balance between the citizen and the State.”

Accusing the Government of rushing the bill to the Senate and of not consulting NGOs, Haynes declared, “We will not be bullied by this Attorney General into passing bad law.

“The Opposition stands in defence if the citizens of TT. Lend your voices before the bill reaches committee stage.

“It is only your voices that can stop it.”

Her colleague Wade Mark said the bill was nowhere to be found in the AG’s legislative agenda for 2016-2020.