Freedom Of Information
Public Entity
Office of the Commissioner for Voluntary Organisations
Description of the Entity Structure
The Office of the Commissioner for Voluntary Organisations (OCVO) is made up as follows:
- Annual Returns and Annual Accounts, International Affairs and Research
- Central Information Management & Analysis and Technology
- Intent, Pre-Enrolment, Inter-Regulatory Liaison, Enrolment and Classification
- Legal, Compliance and Investigations
- People – HR, Finance and Administration
- Support Services
General description of the categories of documents the Entity processes (including exempt documents)
- Intent, Pre-Enrolment and Enrolment
- Voluntary Organisations’ Files, including annual returns
- Compliance
- Charity Shops
- Public Collections
- Legal, Investigations and Monitoring
- Human Resources
- Procurement
- Information Technology
- Research
Procedure
A request made to the OCVO, made in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act (Chapter 496 of the Laws of Malta), shall, as soon as reasonably practicable, and in any case not later than twenty working days after the day on which the request is received by the authority, be decided whether the request is to be granted and, if it is to be granted, in what manner and for what charge (if any) and inform the applicant accordingly – Article 10.
Where a request in accordance with Chapter 496 is made or transferred to a public authority, the authority may extend the time limit by up to forty working days in respect of the request and shall inform applicant with reasons for applying the extension as stipulated in Article 11.
An applicant whose request for information is refused, or who is otherwise not satisfied with the information provided, its format or the extension of the deadline for the submission of the notification indicating whether a request would be met or not may address a complaint to the OCVO.
The complaint should be addressed to the OCVO’s FOI Officer, who shall bring the complaint to the attention of the officer responsible. The officer responsible shall reply to the applicant within ten working days from the receipt of the complaint.
The FOI officer responsible shall inform the applicant of the decision taken with respect to his or her complaint, and in the event of confirmation of a decision not to release the pertinent information, shall explain the reasons thereof.
Whenever the applicant’s complaint is related to the format of the information provided or to an extension of the deadline for the submission of the notification indicating whether a request would be met or not by the OCVO, and the original decision is upheld, the applicant shall be given an explanation as to why his or her complaint cannot be positively addressed.
The applicant shall also be informed that he or she may appeal the decision or otherwise address a complaint to the Information and Data Protection Commissioner in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act (Cap. 496 of the Laws of Malta).
An applicant may also make use of the Internal Complaints Procedure to report failure to meet deadlines or to send notifications. In those cases where the request for information can be met but has not been met within the deadlines specified by the Act, the FOI officer responsible shall waive any applicable fees for the submission of information.
FOI Officer Details
The FOI officers of the Office of the Commissioner for Voluntary Organisations may be contacted by e-mail foi.cvo@gov.mt or by telephone 23884500/1.
FOI Requests may be submitted by e-mail to foi.cvo@gov.mt, through the FOI Portal www.foi.gov.mt via the e-ID or through the online form.
Other Information
Complaints may be submitted to the OCVO by e-mail to foi.cvo@gov.mt through the FOI portal www.foi.gov.mt via the e-ID or through the online form.
Further information with regards the Freedom of Information Act can be found on www.foi.gov.mt.
Public Authority Contact Details
Address:
Office of the Commissioner for Voluntary Organisations
Sajjan Lane, National Road,
Hamrun, HMR 1680,
Malta
General Telephone number: 23884500/1
Generic e-mail address related to FOI requests: foi.cvo@gov.mt
OCVO’s Generic e-mail address: vo@gov.mt