New decisions stipulated that all organizations that receive
government funding through the Ministry of Religions must
present a certificate attesting to their proper
administration signed by the Nonprofit Organizations
Registrar. The original deadline was last Tuesday, but due to
the strike in the offices of the Registrar, receiving these
certifications was nearly impossible and the deadline has
been extended for a month.
UTJ MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni was instrumental in gaining the
extra time. "In addition to the fact that this decision was
inadequately publicized and most of the non- profit
organizations are unaware of it, personnel of the Non- profit
Organization Registrar are conducting sanctions which prevent
them from processing the affidavits," Rabbi Gafni wrote
Minster Chaim Ramon about the problem.
Yoav Keren, Minister Ramon's public relations advisor,
replied that both Rabbi Moshe Gafni and Rabbi Meir Porush had
spoken to him about the matter. They later decided that the
request was legitimate and extended the deadline.
As stipulated by a government decision of October 1998, every
nonprofit organization seeking the support of a government
office for the fiscal year 2000 must provide the allocating
ministry with a certificate from the Nonprofit Organizations
Registrar attesting to its proper administration, including
the keeping of proper records. However, an additional
decision by the Ministerial Committee for Affairs of State
Control determined that such applications had to be filed by
the end of November 1999: in other words, by this past
Tuesday.
It should be noted that the original decision of the
Ministerial Committee for Affairs of State Control which
received the status of a government decision in October `98
designated a later date: the 30th of April of every year,
including the year 2000.
An examination conducted last week by Shlomo Weiss, a tax
advisor in the office of the Nonprofit Organizations
Registrar, indicated that until now, few applications for
such certification have been filed in time for the year 2000,
while 10,000 nonprofit organizations have received at least
some sort of government grant in the past year.
