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Saturday, January 28, 2006
Fund-raisers asked: Where do donations go?
The business sector backs the measure requiring persons, institutions and groups that initiate fundraising activities to publish their financial statements.
In his Jan. 14 letter to the Cebu City Council, Teodoro B. Locson, vice president for external affairs and relations division of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI), said they strongly believe that the “contributing public is entitled to know what is being done to the money they donated.”
Public interest
“The funds generated by such fundraisers are imbued with public interest.
Indeed, the contributing public was induced to give something because of representations that the fund would be used for a specific noble purpose of income tax. Fundraisers should show good stewardship on funds entrusted them,” Locson’s letter read.
Locson, however, said the proposed ordinance “does not specify how the compliance to this requirement of a published financial statement is monitored.”
He said there has to be an implementing guideline detailing the procedures to execute the measure.
Also, there is a need to assess its practicality, he said.
City Councilor Hilario Davide III, who sponsored the ordinance last November, finds the need to protect the integrity of the institutions and for the public to know what is being done with the money they contributed.
Misappropriated
Complaints, he said, were usually about funds being “misappropriated.” Others pointed out that after the activity, “nothing more was heard from the association, institution or agency...until the next fundraising activity.”
His draft ordinance requires organizations that solicit funds in the city to publish, in a local daily, their financial statement within 30 days after the fundraising activity ends.
He proposed that the statement indicate the name of the contributor or donor, the amount donated and the expenses incurred.
Davide also incorporated in his proposed measure that the organization that refuses to cooperate will be fined from P500 to P2,000, jailed for not less than 30 days or not more than three months, or face both penalties, at the discretion of the court. (GAC)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (January 28, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here.
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