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The Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) has called on the voluntary sector to "police" public bodies on its behalf to ensure they are meeting their obligations under the Race Relations Amendment Act 2000 and to report them when they fail.

Senior legal officer at the CRE Chitra Karve told delegates at last week's National Association for Voluntary Sector conference that voluntary sector groups were ideally placed to demand evidence that public bodies were working to eliminate unlawful discrimination and promote equality of opportunity and good race relations in carrying out their functions.

Both areas fall under the new general duty section of the amended act and will be audited and inspected in the same way as other statutory duties. The CRE then has the power to take action - ultimately through the courts - when authorities do not take necessary measures.

But Karve said that, with a staff of 150, the CRE did not have the resources to carry out regular monitoring. So the commission would depend on the voluntary sector to inform it when public bodies were not meeting their obligations.

"You're going to be our eyes and ears," she said. "Ethnic minorities have been second-rate citizens in terms of services in the past, and it was up to individuals to approach the commission. Now you can go straight to your local authority and ask it what services it is going to provide, and it will have to show that it is providing services or will do so."

But, while delegates welcomed the message, they were doubtful that they would be able to meet the challenge as many of them had very little knowledge of the act.

Voluntary organisations also raised concerns about the consequences of blowing the whistle on such a potentially important funding source.

Hazel Baird, director of the Black Training and Enterprise Group, said: "This will put voluntary sector organisations in a very vulnerable position, and Iwould hope [the CRE] would support them and let them know how to go about it."

Karve admitted that, with many voluntary organisations being funded by their local authority, they would have to be careful about complaining.

"There is a sense in which you're biting the hand that feeds you," she said. "But we absolutely rely on whistleblowers in this area. There will always be tensions regarding complaints when one organisation is funded by another."

Karve said that a series of regional conferences, including one jointly organised with a black and minority ethnic organisation and one for the voluntary sector as a whole, were planned at which members of the CRE would go through the act in detail.