NGOs concerned over fresh move to amend foreign fund use ordn

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FE Report
The Non-Government Organisation (NGO) Federation expressed Sunday its concern over the reported fresh move to amend the Foreign Donations (Voluntary Activities) Regulation Ordinance in order to "ensure transparency and accountability in the use of foreign funds by the NGOs".
In a statement issued to the press, the Federation of NGOs in Bangladesh (FNB) said its attention was drawn to a news item that was published in the FE on September 01. It said that if there was any such move, the main stakeholders, the NGOs were not yet consulted about amendment of the laws concerning them.
"NGOs believe that the existing Ordinance is adequate to regulate the utilisation of foreign funds. The NGO Affairs Bureau is empowered to monitor their activities and instruments already exist with the Bureau to detect any lack of proper utilisation of fund or of transparency in the implementation of the NGO projects", it observed.
It stated: "If necessary, the Bureau should strengthen its manpower for effective monitoring of the NGOs. If there is any amendment, that should ,however, aim at making certain clauses more flexible to give more space to the NGOs considering the vast expansion and diversification for their programmes in recent years. Otherwise, the NGOs apprehend that further control in the name of regulation will severely affect the flexibility and the innovative culture of the NGOs".
The FNB also feared that the move "may, unfortunately, encourage rent seeking and undue red-tapism at different levels".