Bangladesh News

At least 1,000 foreign-funded non-government organisations are operating illegally, as they have yet to renew their registration with the NGO Affairs Bureau.

“Last year, we served show-cause notices on 1,300 NGOs for working without renewal of registration,” said Muhammad Ibrahim, deputy director of NGOAB.

Some NGOs could not be sent notices, as they have moved without giving the bureau their new addresses, he added.

Of the notice recipients, only 300 have applied for renewal and another 300 informed the bureau that they would apply.

The remaining 700 have made no move whatsoever. They will get a few more days to apply for registration renewal. If they fail to do so, the government will have to cancel their registrations, said NGOAB officials.

The law in this regard stipulates that the projects run by a foreign-funded NGO will be adjudged illegal and shut down if the organisation continues operating on expiry of registration.

As per Foreign Donations (Voluntary Activities) Regulations Rules 1978, an NGO should renew its registration every five years.

Since inception in 1990, the NGOAB has cancelled registration of 54 NGOs for violating foreign donations rules.

In 2004 alone, it revoked registration of 15 NGOs for financial irregularities, involvement in extremism and anti-state activities.

Meanwhile, some NGO officials complained that the bureau takes too much time for the renewal job.

“As per the rules, we have applied six months before expiry of our registration. Eight months have gone since then, but we haven’t yet got our licence renewed,” said a project director on condition that he and his NGO remain anonymous.

During a recent visit to the NGO bureau, officials from different local and foreign-funded NGOs were seen waiting at the reception.

No-one, however, would say much about issues like inefficiency and shortage of manpower at the bureau, as they fear they might have a hard time if they go public with these.

“Some of the foreign-funded NGOs have decided not to renew registration as they currently have no projects running on foreign funds,” said an NGO official.

A technical coordinator of a local NGO told The Daily Star, “We have submitted application for renewal at least two months ago, but they [bureau] have yet to issue one to us. So what can we do other than continuing with an expired licence?”

When the NGOAB was founded with 67 employees, there were only 347 NGOs.

In last two decades, the number of local and international NGOs has leapt to 2,500, while bureau’s manpower remained almost the same.

“We are working with a minuscule manpower. Besides registration of the NGOs, the bureau has to monitor their activities, do the renewal job and disburse funds,” said the NGOAB deputy director.

“So it’s understandable that the renewal might take a little longer,” he observed.

According to the rule, local NGOs have to pay Tk 10,000 and foreign NGOs $1,000 for renewal of registration. Along with other documents, they must submit names and passport size photos of managing committee members, photocopies of national ID cards of executive committee members, copies of organisation charters and other registration numbers (if any) and certificates.