Yesterday (7) we published the Press Release sent to us via General Registry, the registrar for Non-Profit Organisations (NPOs). The Registry’s Head of Compliance is Paul Inniss.

There are at least 300 NPOs, such as sports associations, churches, community organisations, and service clubs, currently in local operation. To date, only 63 of these charities have registered.

The registry is there to protect us, the public, from “any potential bad actors”. I am sure you will be comforted to know that. In the thirty-six years I have lived here I have spent many sleepless nights worrying about the monies I have given to these charities, especially the churches. I expect you have, too, otherwise this legislation wouldn’t be necessary. All the many prosecutions that all these offending charities have been taken to court and prosecuted have been executed with great secrecy as I have not ever heard of one.

Inniss has explained further. He says, “This legislation is going to further align Cayman with global regulatory standards, which recognise that serious financial crimes, such as terrorist financing, can occur through NPOs.”

I can be run over by a bus every time I go outside so perhaps government should legislate for that happening?

To think that money laundering and terrorist financing could have been going on all these thirty-six years here and I never knew! No wonder we have so many churches, and so many people who spend hours and hours working with little or no pay to raise money for the poor, the invalid, the miserly government funded research to benefit our health, our sick animals, and so on and so on. To think that every year we give thousands of dollars to the NCVO Radio/Telethon with Cayman’s artists giving up their time and talent to help raise these necessary funds. The service clubs and organisations who work so hard to help our community. All this time I never knew all this was potentially harbouring terrorist activities. So high is the chance of this happening, and it must have been happening without our knowing, because this stringent legislation would never have been enacted.

And now it has, look at what is being threatened for those 237 charitable organisations who have to date not complied.

“These charities will face a $500 penalty fee for noncompliance, plus $10 for every day beyond 1 August 2018 that they fail to apply for registration, up to a maximum fine of $3,000. They would also face the refusal of Government funding in cases where it was previously given. Additional criminal sanctions may apply to entities continuing to operate past the deadline without registering.”

Dear God! My precious donations may now be gobbled up by government and government now have a legitimate excuse not to give any funding at all to charities. And all these people who give up their time to run these charities will face criminal sanctions!

Dear God! Why now would anyone want to do this?

“We strongly encourage persons to submit their applications for the NPO register by 15 June, so that Registry has time to process them before the legal registration deadline of 31 July 2018. With so many applications outstanding, we want to make sure that there’s no backlog”, Innis said.

Backlog?

Government should be worried there may be no backlog. There may be a very serious erosion in charitable organisations. And is government going to make up this shortfall?

It is the charities that do the work that government should be doing. Except these charities organise it better, quicker and with less costs. Kindness should be rewarded and not threatened with penalties including criminal actions. However, government is very quick to threaten and wield the big stick. It’s the language they love!

This legislation is not going to make me sleep better at all. It is of no benefit to this country whatsoever.

It is going to make this country and all of us POORER!!!

Dear God. Am I the only one who can see this?