Fresh move likely to streamline foreign fund use by NGOs

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S M Jahangir
The NGO Affairs Bureau is considering a fresh move to ensure transparency and accountability in the use of foreign funds received by the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to serve the desired purpose.
The NGO Affairs Bureau recently issued a circular, outlining a provision that NGOs would require using at least 50 per cent of their received overseas funds for visible development programmes.
But the regulatory authority withdrew the circular about two weeks after issuing the same following strong oppositions from the NGOs concerned.
"Now we have initiated a fresh move to amend the country's Foreign Donation (voluntary activities) Regulation Ordinance 1978 in order to ensure transparency and accountability in the use of foreign funds by NGOs," an NGO Affairs Bureau official said.
The official further said some provisions are to be incorporated into the existing ordinance in order to ensure the proper utilisations of foreign funds received by NGOs for various development activities.
Without going into details, the officials also pointed out that some other new provisions were expected to be proposed in the new amendment to enhance the authorities' control over the NGOs' foreign-funded projects.
Such amendments to the existing laws have been initiated because the existing ordinance is inadequate to regulate the utilisation of foreign funds by NGOs.
"The regulator finds itself in a difficult situation to deal with financial irregularities and credit operations of many NGOs due to some vacuums in the existing ordinance," an official said.
Responding to a query, another official said the main purpose of the amendments is to ensure transparency and accountability, especially in the utilisation of overseas funds.
"The key objective of the proposed amendment is to check whether or not the external funds received by the local NGOs are utilised accordingly," said official.
There have been allegations that NGOs often indulge in financial irregularities in the absence of proper auditing.
Against this backdrop, experts and policy makers have long been pressing the government to frame certain rules and regulations for the micro-credit operators.
Taking such allegations into consideration, the authorities had initiated a move to amend the Foreign Donation (voluntary activities) Regulation Ordinance more than three years ago, sources said.
"Even after preparing a draft on the proposed amendment, it could not be placed before the parliament due to lack of prior approval from the ministry of law.
According to officials, NGOs receiving or applying for foreign funds or are interested in receiving funds from sources outside the country are required by law to register with the NGO Affairs Bureau, which was created in 1990 and was part of the Prime Minister's Office.
NGOs operating in Bangladesh and receiving grants from various sources abroad are both local and foreign, they said, adding that there has been a tremendous increase in funds being received by the NGOs.