If you’ve registered your
non-profit organisation with the Jabatan Pendaftaran Pertubuhan or Registry of
Societies (ROS), here are some brief pointers on the kinds of external service
providers you would need in order to comply with the relevant compliance
requirements.
As costs are always a factor for new non-profit
organisations, you might be able to use existing volunteers or founding members to contribute their time
and expertise – if any of them has a legal or financial background.
In the event you are not able to enlist the
help of a volunteer with the right expertise, you would probably need to get in
touch with the following professionals.
Company Secretary
Company secretaries could either be practising
lawyers or licensed company secretaries in public practice. Meaning, such
professionals would be attached to a legal firm or a company secretarial firm.
Basically, you would contact one of these firms to act for your non-profit
organisation and take care of company secretarial matters such as preparation
of documentation for Executive Committee meetings, as well as Annual General
Meetings (AGMs) or Emergency General Meetings (EGMs). These documents could include notices of
agenda, minutes and circular resolutions. Such a professional could also assist
with compilation and lodgement of the registered society’s annual returns with
ROS every year (though with the advent
of the new eROSES system, it is possible for any of the founding
members/volunteers to do this, with some guidance on how to fill the online
forms).
To locate a company secretarial firm near
you, here’s a list of chartered company secretaries in public practice provided by the Malaysian Institute of Chartered
Secretaries and Administrators (MAICSA) http://www.maicsa.org.my/pc_holders_dir.aspx.
External Auditor
In order to come up with a set of audited
accounts which need to be tabled before the members of the registered society
during its AGM, you will also need an external auditor. The ROS guidelines provide
for an internal auditor to be appointed by the registered society (juruaudit
dalaman) as well. But an external auditor would still be required to conduct the full year
audit of the registered society’s accounts, which would need to be tabled
before the members in general meeting (that is, during the AGM) within 6 months
of the close of the society’s financial year. The external auditor would also
need to comment/advise on tax issues.
To locate an audit firm, there’s a member firm directory search provided
by the Malaysian Institute of Accountants at http://www.mia.org.my/new/members_memberfirms_directory.asp.Be sure to refine the search based on the
state in which your non-profit organisation is located, and also, select “audit firms” instead of “non-audit firms”.
As always, the cost of appointing an
external service provider varies. On the whole, large established firms charge
more than smaller firms. In order to save costs, perhaps you could try to interest
your preferred service provider in the possibility of “adopting” your
non-profit organisation as a corporate CSR project . In return for a programme
run by your non-profit organisation in collaboration with the service provider, such as volunteer sessions for the staff, perhaps the firm could subsidise the cost of services, or better still, provide them to your
non-profit organisation FOC. An added selling point might be some positive publicity for the firm, in your social media postings, newsletter or email blasts to your members.
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