VIMUKTI CHARITABLE TRUST

Preamble:
The Karnataka Capuchin Province has established a registered trust called, Vimukti Charitable Trust for social service and developmental activities in the Province. The goals and objectives of this trust are to be attained in a systematic and cohesive manner. For this purpose the Province shall establish in a suitable place a well furnished central office to plan, coordinate and supervise all the programmes and the activities. The Statutes are applicable to all the Friars of the Province who are involved in this ministry. So that all the Programmes function effectively and achieve the expected goals and objectives. These Statutes are to be read along with the Constitutions of the Order and also the Statutes of the Province.

The Province so far had a Commission for Justice - Peace and Ecology. The Terms of Reference of the Commission have been integrated into the Statutes so that there will not be discrepancy between the two.
Vision Statement:
A Society rooted in the Gospel values of love, justice, peace and respect for life and environment.
Mission:
To create a just society where all receive equal opportunities for development and growth, where all have equal share in the resources of the earth and where every ones human dignity is respected.
Objectives:
1. To plan, organize, and streamline the Social service and development ministry in the Province.
2. To provide a forum for friars involved in social action ministry to come together, share their experiences and plan social welfare activities as a team.
3. To conscientise people and create awareness regarding their rights and obligations.
4. To help the poor, the exploited and the oppressed to overcome their plight and consistently strive after the realization of their potentialities.
5. To organize training programmes and activities in order to create a just society founded on peace and respect for life and environment.
6. To attain financial self sufficiency and sustainability for all the programmes and activities of VCT.
7. To propose personnel who can be trained to continue the ministry of social action in the province.
Principles of Orientation:
1. Fraternity as Basis: All the activities of Vimukti in the Province are basically founded on local fraternity. The Brothers involved in social action integrate themselves within the fraternity and the activities should be an expression of fraternal capuchin charism. They should try their best to be present for the all programmes of the fraternity as much possible. They should share and discuss Vimukti programmes with the fraternity and generally important long range action-plans are drawn in consultation with the fraternity local chapters.
2. Team Work: This is an extended aspect of the former. All those who are involved in the Vimukti action should plan and organize their programmes as a team in consultation with the central office. Local administrative board is instituted for this purpose, which should build up and strengthen this aspect of tem work.
Nomenclature:
VCT : Vimukti Charitable Trust
CPK : Capuchin Province of Karnataka
PMD : Provincial Minister and his Definitory.
BT : Board of Trustees of Vimukti Charitable Trust
PM : Provincial Minister of the Capuchin Province of Karnataka.
VCO : Vimukti Central Office.
ED : Executive Director i.e., The Director of Vimukti Central Office
DLU : Director of Local Unit.
LAB : Local Administrative Board.
The Board of Trustees:
1. The Provincial Minister of CPK is the President/Chairperson and the Convener. The Administrator/Province Secretary of the CPK is the Secretary and the Executive Director is the Treasurer of VCT. The other members of the Board are: the Directors of Local Units, the Provincial Treasurer and the signatories to the original Vimukti Trust Deed.
2. The Board of Trustees constitutes the Governing Body of the Vimukti Charitable Trust. The reports of the meetings are to be made available for the scrutiny of the civil authorities.
3. The meeting takes place at least twice in a year. The Secretary sends intimation a month in advance after consulting the Chairman. The Agenda is prepared by the Secretary in consultation with the President and sent to the members along with the intimation. The President shall send his depute if he is not able to attend the meeting.
4. The Board of Trustees plans all programmes, projects, and activities of the VCT in all its units in order to fulfill the objectives of the VCT.
5. It also functions in the province as JPE commission and the terms of reference of JPE Commission are taken up for implementation by the Board.
6. It studies the audited balance sheet and proposes means to strengthen financial position of the trust.
7. It is a forum to discuss plans, share experiences of failure and success and build up a team spirit among brothers involved in Social action ministry.
8. It is also a forum to submit reports of the local units, evaluate its functioning and to resolve any conflicts, problems and difficulties.
9. The Board fulfills all the civil requirements essential for the efficient administration of the VCT before the Government.
10. The minutes of the meetings are submitted to the PMD with a separate letter requesting for permissions in cases stipulated under § 8 below.
The Role of PMD:
1. To Supervise and direct the general working of the VCT.
2. To appoint the Directors of the Central Office and also of the other units.
3. To appoint Asst. Directors and accountants if needed.
4. Responsible to implement the Statutes.
5. To appoint signatories to Bank Accounts of VCT.
6. To grant permissions for the items listed § 11 below.
The Central Office:
The Central office is managed by the Executive Director appointed by PMD. The Central office which is located at a place determined by PMD has following functions.
1. It plans, coordinates and interconnects the activities of all the units. Works for the realization of the objectives of the VCT.
2. It gives basic orientation to all programmes and projects.
3. Conducts interviews and admits personnel and also issues Appointment Letters. The Executive Director is the Appointing Authority for all the employees.
4. Responsible to execute and implement Service Rules for all the employees of VCT..
5. Supervises the implementation of Provident Fund and other schemes for the employees.
6. To organizes training programmes for all personnel involved in Vimukti programmes.
7. It provides legal and logistic support.
8. It forwards the projects/ programmes prepared by the local units to the funding agencies.
9. It supervises the execution of programmes and verifies the reports
10. It creates team spirit, cohesiveness and discipline among all personnel of Vimukti.
11. It supervises the financial management through internal auditing.
12. It proposes new programmes and new units and plans generation of the finances for the same.
The Local Administrative Board
1. Members: The Executive Director is the Chairperson and convener. DLU, Local Superior of the Fraternity and the Assistant Director if any are the members of the LAB.
2. If there is need any other office bearer (like local coordinator, representative of central office, accountant, etc) can be invited to attend any particular meetings with the permission of the chairperson.
3. The LAB meeting takes place generally once in four months (three times in a year), but it can also be convened whenever situation calls for such a meeting.
4. The intimation along with the provisional agenda is sent to the members at least a week in advance by the Convener.
5. All the local programmes, projects and activities are discussed and evaluated from all angles and relevant steps are proposed for effective implementation and execution of the same.
6. This is also a forum to plan new projects and to discuss the viability and continuity of the existing ones.
7. It proposes personnel for employment, plans interviews if necessary and evaluates the performance of already employed. It determines their salary, proposes means for their welfare, and plans training methods for them so that programmes and activities could be more efficiently carried on.
8. The LAB considers the financial matters (local budgets, auditor's reports etc) in detail.
9. Tries to resolve conflicts, difficulties, problems arising from any direction.
10. The LAB meeting is an opportunity for the Executive Director to check all the documents, projects correspondence, reports,. Books of accounts, vouchers etc.
11. The minutes of the LAB meetings are maintained by the DLU locally and submitted to the Provincial Minister during the Pastoral Visitation.
Approvals and permissions:
The LAB and the Executive Director should seek prior permission in writing for the following from the PMD:
1. To open or close down any bank account of VCT.
2. To change the signatories of bank accounts of VCT.
3. To apply for any loan from the bank or from any other sources.
4. To initiate negotiation for any immovable assets of any kind: like giving on rent any premises or taking on rent any premises etc.
5. To initiate negotiations in order to sell or purchase any land.
6. To establish any new units of social work.
7. To purchase any vehicle.
8. To invest on bonds, stock market or in any such agencies..
Duties and Responsibilities of the Executive Director:
1. The Executive Director is in charge of the entire ministry of social service programmes and development activities in the Province.
2. He is also in charge of the Vimukti Central Office and through it he organizes and animates the social welfare activities in a cohesive manner and sees that it is carried out in a Team Spirit.
3. He is generally the Treasurer of the Governing Body of VCT - which is to be confirmed by PMD.
4. He is a liaison between the Provincial Definitory and the Local units. He is co- responsible along with the Secretary to submit the reports of Board Trustee meetings to the Definitory.
5. He is responsible to convoke LAB meetings and see that all units run efficiently and systematically. He presides over the LAB Meetings.
6. He plans training programmes for all personnel involved in VCT locally and also at the centre.
7. He is responsible for the maintenance of all the documents of VCT and also of all the programmes at the respective Units.
8. He is responsible to maintain discipline, punctuality and decorum in the office.
9. He is responsible to give letters of appointments to all employees of VCT and also the letters of termination. He should follow all the norms of labour law meticulously (see service rules).
10. He is also responsible for the welfare of the employees, for provident fund etc.
11. He visits the units whenever there is some conflict, unexpected crisis etc. and tries to resolve the issues.
12. He checks and supervises all the documents (project reports, correspondence etc. ) and the books of accounts during the LAB Meeting.
13. He helps individual units to write and forward new projects to funding agencies.
14. He is responsible for planning the sustainability of the projects.
15. He is one of the signatory for the central account. The other two are appointed by the PMD. He shall maintain the books of accounts of the accounts. He shall also get the accounts VCT duly audited.
16. He should observe the statutes and service rules diligently.
17. He can have an assistant director, appointed by the PMD.
The Duties and responsibilities of the Director of Local Units:
1. He is responsible to organize, animate and execute the programmes, and projects at the local level.
2. He visits the sites of the projects regularly and supervises the implementation personally.
3. He is in charge of all the personnel working under him and sees to their welfare. - grants casual leave etc.
4. He should also maintain discipline and punctuality among the employees under him.
5. He is fully responsible for the right use of funds received for each project. He can have an accountant who will maintain all books of accounts up to date. He should get all the local accounts duly audited.
6. He is also responsible for preparing all projects reports and to do all correspondence with the funding agencies. He can take the help of the central office for this purpose.
7. The certain percentages - as decided by PMD - of his allowance shall go to the maintenance of the central office and also the local fraternity.
8. He maintains the Register of the minutes of the LAB meeting and presents it to the Provincial Minister during the Pastoral Visitation.
9. He is one of the signatories of the local account of VCT. The other two are appointed by the PMD.
10. He shall esteem high the Local Fraternity and shall present reports of his activities to local chapters and takes active part in daily horarium and programmes of the fraternity to the extent possible.
11. He shall observe the Statutes and the Service Rules diligently.
Financial Management:
1. The Board of Trustees are responsible to generate funds for VCT and manage these funds in a prudent and efficient way. All the funds are administered under VCT.
2. All the bank accounts of VCT shall have three signatories nominated by the PMD. Any two of them shall sign all cheques and transactions.
3. If there is need to have Bank Accounts other than VCT, the ED and DLU shall administer them by appointing proper signatories.(see 10.6 below).
4. The Foreign contribution accounts should never be mixed up with local accounts. Both must have separate bank account numbers and separate books of accounts.
5. The funds of Central Office are used under the direction of the Executive Director. And the funds of the local units are used under the direction of the DLU.
6. There should be a qualified accountant in each unit to maintain the books of account. The accountant himself should not be the signatory of any bank accounts.
7. All the accounts are to be duly audited at the end of financial year and consolidated under VCT. The Balance sheet is submitted to the following Board of Trustee meeting.
8. The internal auditing is done by the Central office of all the local units once a year.
Conclusion:
1. All the friars involved in the Vimukti ministry need to pay supreme attention to public relations. They should take all complaints from employees or from public with due seriousness and respect. No disrespect in any manner should be shown to any one (namely to the beneficiaries or employees). This is of utmost importance to preserve and promote the good name of the Organisation we represent
2. The Friars are exhorted to desist from involving in any manner with the employees or beneficiaries of the place from where they have been transferred. With true Franciscan spirit of brotherhood they are requested to desire sincerely the welfare of the Unit they worked for, and support the undertakings of the new person appointed in that place.
3. The Friars involved in the social welfare ministry need to be conscious of their noble task in the society. They represent the public face of our Capuchin Order to people they serve. They need to be persons of great example and emulation to all, very specially to the employees and the beneficiaries.

Secretary Provincial Minister
Date: September 8, 2009
Place: Saccidananda, Bangalore - 10

OFFICE BEARERS

Bankal Staff

CHIKKODI Staff

POTHNAL Staff

UJIRE Staff

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