Accountability and control of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Malta

Abstract

Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) play an active role in society, dealing with issues that more often then not are neither profitable for private business nor effectively addressed by Government programmes. NGOs make very important economic and social contributions to society as a whole, providing vital services, as education, assistance and health care, beneficial to the community. The foundations of most NGOs, even large professionally run, is essentially voluntarism, both in terms of participation and funding. Statistics compiled by the National Statistics office (NSO), Malta, indicate a substantial increase both in participation of volunteers and income. In addition, indicating also an emerging trend that NGOs are undertaking loans, employing staff, and dealings in property. This dissertation is aimed to find out how Local Government in Malta is ensuring accountability and control of Maltese NGOs, in light of their importance in society as well as a growing potential third sector. This study attempts to shed light on this issue by means of systematically examining laws, regulations, case studies and statistics, as well as a comparative analysis of the British past influence and prospective EU membership vis-a-vis Maltese law.