JOHOR BAHRU, April 24 (Bernama) — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has called for stricter regulations to control and monitor the spending of charitable bodies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in order to prevent misconduct and misappropriation.
He said this includes oversight of NGO funds belonging to humanitarian bodies, welfare organisations, death benefit funds, trusts, or foundations that collect donations from individuals and private companies.
Anwar also wants the Registrar of Companies to be responsible for reviewing and ensuring that reports submitted by NGOs are examined more transparently.
"I am currently reviewing a briefing on this matter. All NGOs must also follow several strict procedures, because misconduct appears to be widespread. People go to mosques, collect donations for Palestine, but the aid does not reach its destination. So how is this monitored?
“I will bring this matter up for discussion so that everyone is held accountable to ensure these funds are not misused," he said during a meet and greet session with staff of the Institute of Teacher Education (IPG) and Sixth Form Centre students at the IPG Temenggong Ibrahim campus here today.
Anwar was responding to a question from the honorary treasurer of the institute's Student Representative Committee, who wanted to know whether the committee could apply directly to the Prime Minister's Office for contributions.
In February, an NGO secretary advocating for the people of West Asia, particularly Gaza, Palestine, was detained by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on suspicion of misappropriating approximately RM4.2 million.
Elaborating further, Anwar said strict oversight is necessary because there have been previous cases where Islamic NGOs collected funds but used them for personal purposes.
Their modus operandi, he said, includes going to various places, including mosques, to collect donations supposedly meant to help the Palestinian people.
"It's not exactly corruption, because they collect the money legally and have the proper certificates, claiming the money is for Palestine. If they collect RM100 million but only spend RM20 million on Palestinians, they say the remaining RM80 million is for operational costs.
"At first, we thought these were cases of collecting tens of millions of ringgit for Palestinian aid, but the money ended up being spent on development projects and properties in Kuala Lumpur," he said.
— BERNAMA
