NGOs spend billions unchecked new law soon to monitor them

• Containing terrorist financing, money laundering another aspect
• Registered NGOs received Rs. 33 billion in foreign funding last year
• New law will mandate registration for all NGOs for legal operation

By Kelum Bandara

In the wake of reports that as much as over half of funds received by various NGOs are spent without any monitoring, the government is in the final stage of evolving a new law that provides for compulsory registration of all such organizations with the National NGO Secretariat, an official said.

The final draft of the new law titled ‘Non-governmental Organizations (Registration and Supervision) Bill is now ready. It has now been circulated among the NGOs and individual activists for their views before being presented to the Cabinet for approval. They have been given a period of three weeks for submission of their views, if any, to be incorporated in the bill before enactment.

Director General of the Secretariat for Sanjeewa Wimalagunarathna told Daily Mirror yesterday that the bill, once enacted, would provide for compulsory registration of the NGOs for operation. Currently, there are numerous organizations operating without any supervision as they have not been registered with the Secretariat.

“Last year, the NGOs registered with the Secretariat received as much as Rs.33 billion in foreign funding for their projects in the country. However, there are many unregistered NGOs operating in the country. Altogether, we believe as much as Rs.100 billion is received in funding annually. It means a large amount of NGO funds is spent without any monitoring by the government,” he said.

Responding to a question about the NGOs raising concerns and asking for another three months to submit their proposals, he said these organizations had been given ample time to do so, and he was not in a position to extend the current three-week period granted them again.
“They submitted their proposals for the last time on January 31, 2023. Now we have drafted the bill incorporating them. In the past, there were two draft bills –one worked out in 2017 and the other in 2020. We have taken into account the content of these two past bills and worked out the latest versions while accommodating the views of the NGOs. Therefore, we cannot grant any further time,” he said.

He stressed the need to enact such a law to contain money laundering and terrorist financing in the guise of NGO activities.

“It is a requirement stipulated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to have laws to deal with money laundering and terrorist financing. Therefore, we have to enact this bill. It will be done in two months’ time,” he said.
At the moment, there are 1,786 registered NGOs operating at national level, 1,636 at district levels and 38,524 at divisional levels.  

•  Rs.100 billion is received in funding annually

NGOs dispute transparency in drafting new law to govern their activities 

• Requests for more time to analyze the draft and provide feedback

NGO Collective, a network consisting of organisations and  individual activists, raised concerns about the process of drafting a  new law to regulate the activities of the NGOs.  

Issuing a statement, it said the representatives from six  districts of the core group of the Collective, met the Director General  (DG) of the Secretariat for Non-Governmental Organizations, on  invitation from the Secretariat, an institution functioning under the  Ministry of Public Security.  The DG had stated the objective of this  meeting was to share with us the proposed draft of the proposed  Non-governmental Organizations (Registration and Supervision) Bill.  

  “Despite our request, the draft was not shared with us  before the meeting. During the meeting, hard copies of the proposed  draft law in English were shared with us. The DG explained that this  process was initiated in 2005 and that there were several discussions  between the Collective and the present subject Minister and him since  2022 September on the subject of a new legislation.   

He also referred to a previous draft that was withdrawn and  updated the group about the next steps. These would include incorporating  feedback and analyzing draft, seeking opinion of the Attorney General  about constitutionality, cabinet approval and publishing as a gazette.  We highlighted the process we had engaged in since about  2018 which included engaging in countrywide consultations leading to  submitting a draft law and guiding principles for a legal framework for  not-for-profit sector to previous and present government. We emphasized  this process was initiated at the request of the present President and  then Prime Minister, and that the draft law and guidelines were also  submitted to the present Minister one year ago, in January 2023. 

• Despite our request, the draft was not shared with us before the meeting