Non-profits go Hulk

One man drove to the Port of Spain meeting from Matura; one woman, from a 50-plus-year-old non-profit, came up from South. Another risked her life, she said, to cross a major thoroughfare, trying not to be late. One’s young daughter sat at the back. There were a past students’ association; a Hindu group; two people organising national festivals; several environmental organisations.

The young African woman shared how her disability services group’s leader scolded managers for being unaware of the legislation. The young white one recounted her first visit to Parliament, speaking to the Attorney General during a recess. The greying Indian man shared discovering Parliament has a YouTube channel. The full-bearded software developer wasn’t part of a non-profit, but he’d come to learn more.

The crowd wasn’t standing-room-only. But after the Non-Profit Organisations Act passed in Parliament on Tuesday, persistent concerns about the new law drew this diverse grouping to an ageing union hall, and into old cinema-style seats bolted to the floor, raising their voices over the fan and the music from the rehearsal downstairs.

Some came with decades of cynicism about politics and Government; others fresh with optimism.

The legislation’s enactment is driven by Government’s effort to bring TT into compliance with obligations that countries worldwide have undertaken to address money laundering and financing of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, overseen by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

The same impetus underpins the hotly debated seizure of property derived from crime and zessers’ unexplained assets, a bill rushed through the Parliament at the same time. Fitzgerald Hinds took both back to a special sitting of the House to approve Senate amendments, as Faris Al Rawi flew off to Florida to account to a review group for what the country’s done since our last, failing FATF “mutual evaluation.” At risk if we didn’t pass these laws promptly, Government warned, was blacklisting cutting us off from the international financial system.

One of 40 FATF concerns, Recommendation 8 (R8) addresses risk that non-profit organisations are established or used unwittingly to finance terror. In this area we were deemed to have done nothing at all in our 2016 review. And transactions by a handful of our religious charities, the AG signalled – to headlines – have in recent years been flagged as suspicious by financial institutions.

Government’s insistent approach to prevention (and FATF R8 compliance) – which some of us question – is to register every group, no matter how informal, involved in fundraising, and criminalise failure to register with up to seven years’ jail and $50,000 in fines. All groups (formal or not) would also come under the watch of the Financial Intelligence Unit, the legislation initially proposed; though in its final version only those with half a million in assets do.

The legislation makes anyone in almost any leadership role in any group accountable for failure to comply with its requirements. Groups don’t just register once; they must re-register (and can be denied) every five years (changed from three originally). All information must be kept up to date; failure means a $300/month fine that adds up uncapped (and that’s improved from a potential jail term).

On sight of the bill last month, non-profits quickly shared “alarm” over eight concerns I can boil down to:

a) “indecent haste,” one newspaper editorialised, with which it was being swept to passage, including calculated dishonesty like the tourism minister’s portrayal of TT non-profits as dangerous;

b) one I mentioned last month – that Government ignored a decade of non-profits’ cries and prescriptions for regulatory reform, and layered this atop the existing dysfunctional patchwork;

c) bill provisions that gave Government troubling opportunities for political harassment of unpopular groups; and

d) that overpolicing down to the smallest non-profit does little to counter terrorism, while driving good people away from leadership and setting up small and volunteer groups for failure to comply; and independent intelligence on FATF compliance measures is badly needed. (Allyson West laudably urged fellow accounting/management professionals to donate services to non-profits; but more sustainable approaches are needed.)

Most who gathered on Thursday felt a sense of accomplishment. Two weeks after concern brought groups together, there’s been a brief pause in the legislative process, two meetings with the Attorney General, media interest in non-profits’ concerns, positive responses from Independent Senators,– and several amendments to improve the legislation. Groups feel more interest and competence about advocacy and the legislative process; and new concerns about making Parliament accountable.

It’s not unique, but it feels important.

Then there’s the commitment the Attorney General made publicly in Parliament. The second thing groups asked for in our meeting with him – besides a delay – was more and better regulation. He committed to draft those changes with us, in addition to involving us in making the current law work.

We’re holding onto that promise.