After several years of lull, the interim government has taken a fresh move to amend the existing law, aiming to help check financial irregularities of foreign-aided non-governmental organisations (NGOs) operating in the country.
"A renewed initiative is underway to make the country's 'Foreign Donation (voluntary activities) Regulation Ordinance 1978' time-bound and effective in order to streamline the utilisation of foreign grants by NGOs," said an official.
Following an instruction from the higher authorities concerned, the NGO Affairs Bureaus under the Chief Adviser's Office has assigned some of its senior officials to prepare a revised draft on the proposed ordinance for amendment.
The main purpose of upgrading the existing ordinance is to make the relevant NGOs more accountable and transparent in the utilisation of foreign funds, official sources said.
The interim government has initiated the fresh move after a study of an anti-graft campaign group found lack of transparency and governance in most of the NGO operations, sources added.
Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) released a study last October in the city, reporting that there had been corrupt practices in most of the NGOs mainly due to lack of transparency and accountability in utilisation of resources.
The Federation of NGOs in Bangladesh, however, reacted strongly against disclosure of the facts in the study.
Although the government earlier took an initiative to bring some major changes in the ordinance, it did not materialise mainly due to some procedural complexities.
After preparation of a draft amendment to the ordinance, it was placed directly before Parliament for enactment without any prior consent from the Ministry of Law and Parliamentary Affairs.
As a result, the house sent back the proposal to the PMO (Prime Minister's Office), an official said.
Although the NGO Affairs Bureau urged the then PMO several times to put forward the draft to the law ministry, no positive action was visible in this connection, said the official.
The PMO told the Bureau that the draft needed prior consent from the Attorney General before sending it to the law ministry, sources said.
Earlier, the NGO Affairs Bureau in its draft ordinance (amendment) proposed a number of new provisions including making greater room for the regulator to monitor and evaluate operations of foreign-aided NGOs operating in the country.
According to officials, the existing ordinance is not sufficient to ensure full-proof inspections of the overall NGO activities.
The authorities initiated such amendment after noticing financial irregularities of some NGOs in dealing with foreign funds and their utilisation.
"The regulator finds itself in a difficult situation to deal with some financial irregularities and credit operation systems of many NGOs due to some vacuums in the existing ordinance," said an official.
Apart from inclusion of some strict provisions in the draft, the Bureau also proposed relaxation of the existing disciplinary actions against the misconduct of individual NGOs, working in the country, the official noted.
Under the present provisions, the authority can simply cancel the registration of an NGO after it detects any sort of irregularity in its operation, according to official sources.
Taking this into account, the Bureau also recommended some alternative punitive options before taking any harsh action, they said.
Besides, some other new provisions were also included in the draft ordinance, empowering the authority to deal with the NGOs' financial activities, sources said, without elaborating.
