The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A well-known QC has backed the Government’s decision to spend more time in getting non-profit regulation right, describing the sector as a “lucrative practice” for the financial services industry.

Brian Moree QC, senior partner at McKinney, Bancroft & Hughes, told Tribune Business that The Bahamas needed to strike the correct “balance” between meeting international standards for fighting financial crime while ensuring it remained a competitive jurisdiction for civil society and non-profit groups.

“I was very pleased to see the Government deferred the passage of the Non-Profit Organisations Bill in order to complete public consultation,” he said. “It is important to get that right, and get it right in the sense of The Bahamas meeting the international standard but not undermining market utilisation of that product.

“Non-profit organisations are a rising area for specialist clients, and it is a lucrative practice area for the financial services industry in terms of charities, foundations. Some of the foundations are very large, and bring significant advantages to the jurisdiction in which they operate and are established.

“We don’t want to marginalise the business to the point where we’re uncompetitive against regional competitors or we eliminate basic market utilisation. That means getting the balance right between regulation and international standards, and market needs and utilisation,” Mr Moree added.

“The additional time taken to finalise the Bill and consult with stakeholders will be very important and improve the end product.”

The Bill, as drafted, will apply to all charities and foundations such as the Salvation Army and Bahamas Feeding Network; advocacy groups such as Save the Bays and the Organisation for Responsible Governance (ORG); and environmental activists such as reEarth.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the organisation that sets the global standards for combating money laundering and terrorism financing, is putting the pressure on The Bahamas to pass this latest legislation. It is understood to be particularly vexed by what it views as minimal to non-existent regulation of non-profits by The Bahamas.

However, the Christian Council and Bahamian churches are seeking “a complete exemption” from the Non-Profit Organisations Bill and its provisions, citing one other jurisdiction that had developed a law exempting the church from such regulation, and arguing that it had established a precedent to justify their demands.

Bishop Delton Fernander, head of the Christian Council, said: “We met with the Attorney General. We had our lawyers put our case forward, citing jurisdictions. We will wait and see what the new Bill looks like and make our position known from there.

“We are at the point now where we have made our case from a legal perspective. We’re just waiting to see what the new bill looks like, if it takes into consideration what we proposed or not. Then, if it does or doesn’t, we will make our position very clear.”

Carl Bethel QC, the attorney general, though, has described the church’s viewpoint as an “unsustainable position”, adding that the information he possessed contradicted their assertions. While agreeing that one country had drafted such a law, he added that it never been brought to Parliament or passed on to the statute book.

Mr Bethel previously told Tribune Business that it had “accommodated 80-90 percent” of non-profit concerns over plans to regulate the sector, adding: “At the end of the day, the Government does not wish to make life difficult for anybody. We don’t want to make it so difficult for non-profits to function that we drive them out of their causes.

“It’s in this light that the Government has taken on as many of their concerns as we possibly can, and is still trying to find other ways to make the Bill more effective and serviceable.... We’ll come up with something broadly acceptable, and I think they’ll be alright.”