SINGAPORE - The charities watchdog will be paying attention to charities that venture into business.
In its 2018 annual report, the Commissioner of Charities (COC) said it will provide "guidance" to charities that engage in non-charitable activities, such as setting up business subsidiaries.
Dr Ang Hak Seng, the commissioner, said: "It is essential that these activities do not undermine the charity's focus and distract it from its exclusively charitable purposes. More importantly, it is crucial that governance in areas such as conflict of interest are not overlooked."
For example, he stressed that there has to be "an arm's-length relationship" between a charity and its business subsidiary. His office will provide more guidance to "stress the necessary governance to protect the charities' interests, such as their beneficiaries and charitable assets".
In 2017, a total of $2.65 billion in donations was collected - down 7.3 per cent from $2.86 billion in 2016.
Religious groups, such as churches and temples, collected about $1 billion of the 2017 sum. The other sectors that received significant sums included social and welfare, which netted $445 million and education, with $334 million.
As of the end of last year, there were 2,277 registered charities in Singapore, a slight increase from 2,263 in 2017.
Again, religious groups made up about half of all charities here. The others include those providing arts and heritage, education, sports, social and health services.
The number of complaints about online fundraising fell by 46 per cent.
This comes after the Code of Practice for Online Charitable Fundraising Appeals was launched in January last year. The code, which incorporates best practices and legislative requirements, requires crowdfunding sites to put in place procedures to verify the legitimacy of appeals, have adequate disclosures on the fees they charge, and give regular updates on funds collected.
The commissioner has also been working at boosting the charity sector, from conducting governance reviews to identify gaps and weaknesses in a charity's governance processes and internal controls to educating the donating public.
For example, it launched a Safer Giving campaign last year to equip donors with the knowledge to ask the right questions and to do basic due diligence before they give to charity.
The commissioner also started an In Conversation With The Commissioner of Charities initiative which allows charities and the commissioner to discuss issues of concern to them.
Dr Ang said: "To achieve our vision of a thriving and trusted charity sector, we are committed to meeting regularly as a family - a charity sector family. In Conversation with COC was launched in April this year and we will continue this platform for charities to provide feedback, as well as seek clarification and guidance from my office."
