All it took was a short summertime walk in Central for Bernard Chan to see that charity fund-raising - the cheerful appeals to buy raffle tickets, the guilt-laden entreaties to dig for change - had veered out of control.
'It was just a 15-minute walk, and I have come across three different groups asking for donations,' said Chan, chairman of the Law Reform Commission's charities subcommittee. That was on June 16, the day the commission launched a consultation aimed at bringing more oversight, transparency and accountability to groups seeking money for ostensibly good causes.
The consultation, originally supposed to end in mid-September, has been extended to the end of next month because of anxieties raised by most of the 6,300-odd charities across the city that raise about HK$8 billion a year.
The philanthropies are especially unnerved by the proposal for a new charity commission that would be empowered to process and grant licences for organisations that raise money and enjoy tax exemption. It would also be able to deregister charities and change their trustees or directors.
With powers like that, the charities fear, the new body could become a tool to suppress voices against the government.
'Even before the end of the consultation, chances are high that the proposal that hoped to fill the legal vacuum in regulating the surging number of fund-raising groups would never become legislation,' said Christine Fang Meng-sang, a member of the Law Reform Commission's charities sub-committee.
Fang is also chief executive of the Hong Kong Council of Social Service, an umbrella group for 320 non-government organisations. Since the consultation started, the council has held nine seminars for 450 charity representatives.
