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Zvamaida Murwira, Senior Reporter
The Private Voluntary Organisation Amendment Bill has sailed through Parliament and is now headed to the President for his assent before it becomes law.
The Bill, which among other issues, seeks to improve the administration, accountability and transparency of charity organisations in the country, sailed through Senate on Thursday evening after it had passed the National Assembly a fortnight ago.
Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi, who was steering the Bill on behalf of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister July Moyo, described the passage as historic.
“I want to thank the Honourable senators for this day that the Lord has made, whereupon our Parliament has passed the Private Voluntary Organisations Bill that will clean up a lot of issues that were happening within our charity organisations and it is a historic day. I want to thank all the Honourable Senators,” said Minister Ziyambi.
Earlier on, the minister had told senators in his second reading stage that the Bill was necessary to ensure transparency among charity organisations.
“Mr (Senate) president, the Bill before you today is a very necessary measure to improve the administration, accountability, transparency of charities in our country. The legal word for charity in our country is Private Voluntary Organisation (PVO). Under our law, every charity that uses money collected from the public or donated from a foreign government or foreign agencies, is required to be registered as a PVO, in terms of the PVO Act which the Bill before you seeks to amend,” he said.
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Minister Ziyambi said the country benefited much from the work of those PVOs which operate lawfully within its borders.
PVOs, he said, provided support for communities in a wide range of areas where the national or Local Government for want of resources or expertise, has been deficient for any reason.
“I am speaking, Mr president, of support and assistance in the form of programmes, projects, services, goods and money in sectors such as health and education provision, assistance to widows and orphans, the relief of poverty and hunger and the empowerment of women, youth and the disabled.”
He said the Government was grateful to those law abiding organisations and the law seeks to reign in errant charity institutions.
“We, as Government, are very grateful for the help given by the PVOs. The best PVOs have access to resources, experience and expertise solely needed by the people they benefit. Mr. President, therefore, from the bottom of my heart, on behalf of the Government, I would like to applaud them for the great work they are doing. Accordingly, Mr. President, this Bill does not speak to those law-abiding PVOs I have just mentioned but to the few who may be tempted to use the guise of charity to carry out undesirable, harmful and even criminal activities.”
He said when the Bill was first introduced, Government had heard of organisations abusing charity organisations for self serving purposes or advancing political causes, something that was not consistent with their mandate.
“For instance, Mr. President, when this Bill was first introduced, we had received communication from the Financial Action Task Force (which is the world’s policemen against money laundering). Some charitable trusts are being misused as a means for channeling in funds, to fund terrorism and other criminal activities or to launder the proceeds of criminal activities. For instance, buying properties in Zimbabwe and other countries,” he said.
“Mr. President, we are also, as the Government, aware that some so-called charities act in a political partisan manner by directing money to favoured political parties or candidates at the expense of other political parties or candidates. Partisan assistance using foreign money or money collected from the public under the guise of charity must never be allowed to influence the outcome of national or local elections. In many developed countries Mr. President, this kind of behaviour is understood to be harmful to the very idea of charity.”
He gave an example of the United States where he said one could not register any organisation as non-profit organisation for tax purposes if that organisation campaigns or canvasses for any political candidate or party.
“Mr. President, it is in this context that this Bill seeks to clean up the space within which PVOs may operate. For some time now, the Government has noticed that some so-called charities have completely by-passed the Private Voluntary Organisations Act by forming ‘trusts’ sanctioned by the Registrar of Deeds, Companies and Intellectual Property,” he said.
“This is a device that is specifically permitted by the Act because originally Mr. President, the Government did not want to discourage families or individuals from forming family or private trusts to benefit family members or members of the public using their own wealth. It is still not our intention to impose registration on these kinds of private trusts. However, if it appears that any trust is using for ‘charity purposes’, foreign money not generated by their own activities or investments or using money collected from members of the public at large, then they must be required somehow, to register as a PVO under the Private Voluntary Organisations Act.”
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