Health and Social Services Minister Clarence Terceria said on Friday he will be investigating what type of data his Ministry could obtain from charities it supports.

And he added: "We may be asking for reports on what they are doing and accomplishing so we can see if we are getting value for money.'' The warning came on the heels of a report that the pregnancy rate among teenage girls was rising in the wake of a cut in Teen Services' budget.

Before the recession of the early 1990s, Teen Services received $500,000 in funding from the Government.

But this year, the organisation will receive only $340,000 in Government grants.

"We try to distribute the grants as evenly as possible and try to assist as many charities as possible which help the public,'' Dr. Terceira said.

But he stressed Government could only do so much.

He explained: "Just giving out money is not the answer. They have to come up with some money on their own. Each group usually has some type of fundraisers.'' And he added that he will be reviewing his Ministry's grants to see if they could be increased in next year's Budget.

Dr. Terceira said he also planned to examine how some charities perform the same task and share common goals.

"We will be looking at the duplication of efforts by some charities,'' he added.