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Kathmandu Tuesday February 27, 2001 Falgun 16, 2057.
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Law to regulate NGOs soon
Post Report
KATHMANDU, Feb 26 – The government is set to introduce a new law aimed
at regulating the mushrooming domestic and international non-governmental organizations
(NGOs) in the country and ensuring transparency in their activities.
To this effect, the government has already formed an advisory committee
entrusted with a duty to draft the law, Dr Tika Prasad Pokharel, Member Secretary of the
Social Welfare Council (SWC) told The Kathmandu Post at a workshop on non-profit sector in
Nepal Monday.
Officials are planning to submit the Bill in the 20th session of the
Parliament this summer.
"The Committee was formed nearly two months ago," said Dr Pokharel,
who heads the committee. "Now we are in the process of drafting the law. After we
prepare the draft, we will hold debate in all the five development regions and at the
center and finally present it for discussion in the Parliament."
According to him, besides encompassing all the I/NGOs within a single legal
framework, the new law will ensure that the funds allocated and received by the I/NGOs are
recorded or screened before they are channeled into different projects.
"The legal provisions regulating the non-governmental sector are
currently scattered in different books of law—such as the Social Welfare Act, the
Society Registration Act, the Local Self Governance Act and the Muluki Ain (Civil
Code)," he said. "The provisions are contradictory, and we are also working to
ensure uniformity in the new law."
The government’s move is coming years after questions were raised over
the financial transactions carried out by the NGOs working in the country and the funds
received by them from various INGOs and other donors. According to a report – Non
profit Sector in Nepal: A review - distributed at the workshop today, by July 2000, the
size of the NGOs affiliated with the SWC had grown to 11,036, out of which 5,694 were
involved in community development sector.
Of them, 1,355 (12.27 per cent) are working in the Eastern Development
Region, 6,732 (61 per cent) in the Central Development Region, 1,592 (14.44 per cent) in
the Western Development Region, 1,592 (6.90 per cent) in the Mid-Western Development
Region and 5,95 (5.39 per cent) working in the Far-Western Development Region.
The report prepared for Institute of Integrated Development Studies (IIDS)
says that growth rate of NGOs reached a record high level in the current fiscal year with
an average growth of 2,146 NGOs.
Likewise, the report says, currently there are 87 INGOs maintaining official
agreement with the SWC. "By the end of 2000, there were in totality 85 INGOs and four
multilateral agency’s supporting NGO activities in Nepal through SWC," it adds.
The draft report was presented at the workshop today for discussion, which
had representatives from a number of government bodies including the National Planning
Commission, INGOs and NGOs and the IIDS, organizer of the program.
Though NGOs have come under increasing criticism in the country, activists
point out that they are essential for the development of a free society, as well as to
deliver basic services and goods to areas which might have been overlooked. The non-profit
sector is also vital to raise issues of national concern. One recent example is the
freedom of Kamaiyas (bonded labourers) in western Nepal. A number of national and
international NGOs pooled resources to foist the issue on the national consciousness,
ultimately winning their freedom.
The new law being drafted by the government, some NGO activists worry, could
be targeted against NGOs disliked by officialdom.
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