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Govt tightens NGO rules

Draft law on receiving foreign funds okayed

Staff Correspondent
The non-government organisations will have to get approval from the NGO Affairs Bureau to undertake any project and implement it with foreign donations after the passage of a proposed law on foreign grants.
The cabinet at a meeting yesterday gave the nod to the draft of Foreign Grants (Voluntary Activities) Regulation Act 2014 that seeks to empower the NGO bureau under the Prime Minister's Office to inspect, monitor and assess the NGO activities and cancel registrations for violation of the law.
Briefing reporters after the meeting, Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said the proposed law envisages regulating activities of NGOs receiving foreign contributions. It will also ensure transparency, accountability and appropriate use of foreign funds, he said.
"Under the proposed law, no NGO will be able to undertake any project and implement it with foreign donations without the approval of the NGO Affairs Bureau," said the secretary.
As per the new law, in the application for registration, an organisation must clearly mention the sources of the funds and areas of spending. The registration will be given for ten years, but the government can cancel the registration anytime in case of any violation of the law.
An NGO can appoint a foreign consultant or expert upon taking security clearance from the bureau and the home ministry, the law said.
As per the law, the NGOs will have to keep their foreign contributions in a mother account of a designated bank, publish annual reports after audit of the accounts and submit those to the Director General of the NGO Affairs Bureau.
Any violation of the law would be considered as an offence and punishment will be applicable depending on the nature of the offence. Warning, cancellation of the registration and penalty would be the punishment for any administrative irregularities.
However, any offence of criminal nature like terror financing, women or child trafficking, drug smuggling will be dealt under the existing criminal law, the draft says.
In their immediate reactions, Sultana Kamal, executive director of Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) and Iftekharuzzaman, executive director of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) said they did not know whether the concerns of NGOs
over the law have been addressed before the cabinet's final approval.
They also said most of the provisions were already in place.
"We have yet to see the final draft [of the law]. So we can't say anything specific right now," Sultana Kamal said, adding they would come up with the formal statements upon reading the final draft.
After the cabinet accepted the draft law in principle several months ago, Iftekharuzzaman said the law minister assured them of addressing the concerns.
Earlier, 15 leading NGOs including TIB and ASK said empowering the NGO Bureau to close down an NGO or stop all its voluntary activities is in conflict with the existing laws of the land.
They also termed negative the proposed restriction on receipt of foreign grants by individuals from a number of professions and organisations, and said such a provision is irrelevant.
The NGOs said it is appropriate and necessary to give the NGO Bureau the responsibility for inspection and audit. But it will be inappropriate to give it the task of project evaluation.
They felt that the word "evaluation" should be dropped from articles 10(1) and 10(3) of the draft law.
Contacted, Law Minister Anisul Huq said the NGOs discussed their concerns with him and Prime Minister’s International Affairs adviser Gowher Rizvi. "I also conveyed their concerns to him [Rizvi] and the NGO Affairs Bureau. Those should have been addressed, I hope," he told The Daily Star.
Rizvi could not be contacted as his cellphone was found switched off.
The cabinet also approved the draft of Supreme Court Judges (Leave, Pension and Privileges) Ordinance (Amendment) Act-2014 to raise the rate of gratuity of the judges of the Supreme Court in case of compulsory surrender of pension.
It adopted two condolence motions at the demise of Independence Award winning artist Qayyum Chowdhury and noted journalist Jaglul Ahmed Chowdhury.