The functions and administration of non governmental organisations in Malta

Abstract

All over the world, there is an upsurge in the establishment of private, non-profit or nongovernmental organisations (NGOs), where we are witnessing an unprecedented global associational revolution that is likely to proof significant in this day and age. Malta is no different. Governments can no longer manage the ever increasing public needs on their own, and that is where NGOs feature. One of the key requirements for good governance is accountability. The issue is to whom are NGOs accountable? At first glance this might appear to be a straightforward. question to a simple answer, but, besides being accountable to funders, the mechanism to ensure that accountability actually takes place to all concerned remains debatable. Unlike government who is elected, and therefore can only avoid accountability through violence or coercion, NGOs have no obvious accountability structures. This leads to the growing emphasis on the need for proper monitoring, which is one of the issues dealt with in this study. [...]