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Mirroring the decrease in numbers of faithful that attend regularly mass is the amount of donations given at church
By a staff reporter
A lesson in transparency was given last week by the Archdiocese of Malta as it published its financial statements for 2005. Even though nearly a year late (and any accounting student knows that financial statements must be timely) the Archdiocese in publishing its results gave its stakeholders what they merit – an explanation of how the funds are used.
The Church is a structured bureaucratic organization but teaches and professes good governance in informing the donors of its revenue as to how it administers the funds given as charity. No less than 45% of the Church’s revenue comes from donations. This princely sum of Lm4.27 million is the highest single revenue item followed by investments income and revenue from the running of old people’s homes. On the other hand the church allocates 45% of its expenses for maintenance and administration whilst certain funds are directly given to entities within the church to continue to provide their mission amongst the local community.
Within this category the notes to the financials explain that Lm131,000 was given to old peoples’ homes, Lm29,000 for child institutes, Lm113,000 for the Media Centre that is responsible for RTK, Il-Gens and its TV unit, and an amount of Lm65,000 for the foundation of theological studies.
Mirroring the decrease in numbers of faithful that attend regularly mass is the amount of donations given at church. Overall the church finished off with a surplus of Lm109,000 which is a drastic reduction from the Lm187,000 experienced in the previous year.
Along with that, the Church’s central fund has maintained a regular deficit of over Lm200,000 in the past years, while income coming through the parishes has also decreased by Lm26,000 over last year to Lm1.6 million.
The financial report explains that these aggregated results do not include the funds of religious orders, church schools and religious groups. Certain entities depend on the central fund for temporary financing of activities whilst others present more funds than they need and are shared with other entities.
The Archdiocese also has a strong balance sheet with Lm63 million in fixed assets and nearly Lm4 million in current assets. The creditors’ figures are contained and the total net assets are mainly represented by funds in foundations, other capital funds, investments and accumulated funds. It is not known if the Archdiocese of Gozo will be issuing its own results but Malta’s largest non-profit making organization is the trendsetter for non-government entities that collect and spend substantial sums without explaining anything of their true financial situation. |
