REPORT ON ACTIVITIES OF MONDAY 9 JUNE 2014.

Introduction:

The day started with a morning prayer led by Malawi delegates with a theme, ‘CARRYING OUT ONE’S MISSION’.

Business of the day:

Third Party Money

This was the main topic was about the third party money (TPM) facilitated byBro Lo Koeleman. TPM are donation monies for either a particular province or an individual in the province.

It has been discovered that there has been a lot of problems as regards the accountability of these monies. Provincial Treasurers have had it tough in negotiating with the beneficiaries of these monies as regards how much they should get as per their request at a particular time. Much of it reflects ignorance, greed, mistrust and lack of ethics as regards the vow of poverty. Sometimes an individual would write directlyto the General Treasurer how much money is left for them bypassing the Provincial Treasurer.

Some individuals could ask for interest and even wanting there monies to be given based on that day’s exchange rate without considering as to when the monies were converted to the local currency. There has also not been effective communication from provinces to the General Treasurer’s office updating him as to how much they have given to the beneficiaries in that period.

Cross-border Money transfer

This topic was introduced mainly to make things clear as to what is required in order to transfer monies to a person who is outside his own province either on studies, sabbatical directly to him from Maastricht - The Netherlands.

Below are the requirements;

Regards the beneficiary:

• Account number
• Name and first name of the account holder
• Full Address ( street, town, state/province, country)
• Currency
• (destination of the amount)

Regards the bank

• Name ( not abbreviated)
• Full address
• Bank code (is included in BIC)
• Branch
• BIC ( Bank Identifier Code – also called “Swift Code”) – 8 digit

FIC Investment Statute

Time was also on day allocated to explore and share what the FIC Investment statute stipulate as far as the issue of investments is concerned.

Some notable policies were;

• Investments must be spread to minimize risks
• General Council has the sole authority to any investments in the congregation
• Investment with one single debtor should not exceed 10% of the total investments
• FIC Congregation excludes investing in sectors involved in; crimes against environment, discrimination, fraud and corruption, gambling, pornography, violation of human rights, violation of social and other laws or codes, weaponry.

Participants were then asked to continue developing their project proposals in the afternoon session. The day ended with a barbeque masterminded by Bros Lo and Lucio Torres.

Bro. Joe Banda