MANAMA- Bahrain has put in place more regulations governing donations to non-government organisations for charity purposes to avoid misuse of money-raising campaigns.

Bahrain’s Ministry of Social Development has issued an edict based on the law of the societies and social and cultural clubs that includes extending the period for raising money from two to three months for Islamic and charity societies.

The edict issued by the Ministry of Social Development’s allows to grant the licence of raising money for a period of six months for the civil organisations if their main activity is based on raising money and charity donations or in accordance with the estimation of the ministry.

The societies are exempted from presenting financial reports, and they simply can hand them in as an annexation to the annual financial report.

The civil organisation has to appoint an auditor to review its accounts in case the expenditures or income were over the amount of BD10,000 in a year, on the condition that the audit process will include a statement of the opinion of the auditor about the report of raising the money.

shamada@khaleejitimes.com