Govt mulls major NGO clean-up

---

Aiming to make the country's non-governmental organisations (NGOs) an effective force to propel social and economic development, the government is planning a major clean-up in this sector with revoking licences of wrongdoers and inactive ones. The regulator of this sector already cancelled thousands of licences of such NGOs while reviewing the activities of many others to make the clean-up process beneficial to all concerned. "We have cancelled licences of 4,530 NGOs in the past 10 years on various grounds and now examining licences of 11,047 more NGOs for taking necessary steps to streamline the sector," Director General of NGO Bureau Nurun Nabi Talukdar told BSS. The authorities concerned are also considering necessary reform in rules and regulations to address the issues those are not specifically covered by the existing policy and guideline to effectively regulate this sector. Currently the country has 78,022 NGOs. Among them, many are allegedly involved in different unlawful activities ignoring the respective guideline and the rules and regulations, prompting the regulator consider the major clean-up process. "Some NGOs even do not have any registration while some others are carrying out activities only to make their own fortune," the chief of the NGO watchdog said. Among the illegal activities, microcredit operations by some NGOs came to the notice of the authorities concerned and eventually they decided to take legal steps against them to ensure discipline and transparency in this sector, Talukdar added. Deputy Director of Social Welfare Department Zillur Rahman said the NGOs registered with his department are not allowed to carry out operations like microcredit disbursement though there are such allegations against many of them. Referring to a government's decision, which makes permission from the NGO Bureau and the Bangladesh Bank (BB) mandatory for all NGOs for microcredit operation, he said the authorities found many flouting rules in doing such activities. The authorities also found some other allegations against many NGOs such as not carrying out any activities or maintaining offices, non-submission of annual reports and refraining from taking approval of their committee in every two years, stipulated in the rules and regulations. Last year the government decided to cancel registration of over 20,000 NGOs which remained inactive for several years. The official said there are also allegations of money laundering, gross financial irregularities and even links with terrorist activities. Executive Director of NGO Bureau AKM Moazzem Hossain said the NGOs that are receiving overseas fund should renew their registration in every five years while submitting report on five years' activities, annual activity reports and audit reports. Otherwise, they stand to lose their licences. Director of Federation of NGOs in Bangladesh (FNB) Tajul Islam said many NGOs did not renew their licences and eventually lost their registrations. He said the NGOs who failed to get any fund from overseas or local resources subsequently became inactive. He admitted the fact that some NGOs were operating microcredit with their own fund or taking money from local donors.