Govt circular on foreign aid utilisation irks NGOs

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A Z M Anas
The government circular asking the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to spend half the foreign aid on "visible" development activities has elicited guarded reaction from the development community.
The lobbyists of the development industry have dubbed the decision as "queer," saying if enforced, the NGOs will find it extremely hard to abide by the fresh regulations, given the scope of their work.
The NGO Affairs Bureau, an apex public agency charged with registering the foreign-funded NGOs, last week issued the circular, directing the NGOs to spend 50 per cent of the funding on visible development to ensure transparency and accountability.
"At least 50 per cent of the foreign funding will have to be spent on visible development like building and maintenance of roads, schools and culverts and excavation or re-excavation of canals," it reads.
"It's really an outlandish idea … If enforced, the NGOs will find it difficult to follow the new regulations in relation to their core functions," president of the Federation of NGOs in Bangladesh (FNB) Muhammad Ibrahim said Saturday.
However, the FNB chief said they are yet to receive the circular and the matters relating to the government notification remain "unclear" to them.
Ibrahim, who teaches physics at the University of Dhaka, noted that the NGO body would sit Sunday to review the subject matter of the circular and possible impact on the activities of the non-government sector as a whole.
Deputy executive director of BRAC Aminul Alam said his organisation will also take up the issue with the government through the FNB.
Alam pointed out that the world's biggest NGO had not yet taken stock of the new circular and its potential ramification for the NGOs, in general, and the BRAC, in particular.
Executive vice president of the ASA, an NGO, Enamul Haque said the donors provide money on the basis of their own priority and the NGOs must spend the funds following their criteria.
To support his argument, the ASA executive said the country's major donors like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank extend support through the government channel for infrastructure development.
By contrast, the donors provide money to the NGOs for advocacy and rights-based projects, which cannot be made visible, he added.
"The functions of all cannot be made visible. Whenever a natural calamity strikes, the donor-funded NGOs carry out relief operations and undertake the post-disaster rehabilitation work, which are visible. But the activities of an NGO that is involved in election monitoring cannot be made visible," he explained.
When contacted, director general of the NGO Affairs Bureau Alimussan said the bureau would consider the potential "difficulties" of the non-government side in complying with the new requirements.
"If the NGOs want to sit with us on the matter, we'll gladly accept their offer … The bureau will take their problems into consideration and even interact with them on the procedures," the bureau chief told the FE.
Issued Tuesday the circular says the NGO Affairs Bureau and Social Welfare Directorate will closely observe various invisible programmes like public awareness campaigns and trainings undertaken by the NGOs to ensure accountability.
The decision has been taken at the 11th meeting on July 3 reviewing the activities of the joint forces deployed in aid of the civil administration and law enforcement agencies under the state of emergency.
As of April FY 2006-07, the NGOs received foreign aid worth US$350 million against the commitment of $565 million, according to figures available with the bureau.
An estimated 5500 local and foreign NGOs are operating in Bangladesh and of which, some 2000 are registered with the NGO bureau, a wing under the Chief Adviser's Office