The government has decided to shut down 5043 non-government organisations (NGOs) in 31 districts, as these organisations were found to have violated rules of the Voluntary Social Welfare Agencies ( Registration and Control) Ordinance, 1961.
“We won’t permit any organisation to carry out business activities, after taking registrations from the social welfare ministry. We only encourage those NGOs, which are registered under the ordinance, to run social welfare activities,” said social welfare minister Enamul Haque Mostafa Shahid, on Thursday. When contacted, social welfare secretary Ranajit Biswas said, “5,043 NGOs will soon be closed down in phases, as per recommendations of the social welfare ministry. The recommendations were made, following a year-long investigation on NGOs registered under the Voluntary Social Welfare Agencies (Registration and Control) Ordinance.”
The directorate of social welfare (DSS), under the ministry, is the executing authority, and it has started to send closure notices to dubious NGOs across the country, said DSS director-general Mashiur Rahman.
Misappropriation of funds, delinquency and absence of elections to form executive committees are rampant in most of these NGOs, said a top ministry official. Some of the NGOs have never even submitted their annual reports, while the rest have remained inactive for several years, he added.
The source said that alleged involvement in militant and terrorist activities was also reported against a number of these NGOs. This has induced the government to scrutinise their programmes, he added.
According to intelligence reports, some of the listed NGOs are involved in fomenting unrest in the ready-made garments sector, apart from indulging in other illegal activities.
As many as 530 NGOs in Bogra district, 229 in Natore, 157 in Bhola, 81 in Lalmonirhat, 120 in Nilphamari, 247 in Narayanganj, 188 in Tangail, 288 in Jessore, 317 in Chandpur, 100 in Lakshmipur, 196 in Bagerhat, 197 in Cox’s Bazar, 114 in Patuakhali, 104 in Magura, 171 in Barishal, 229 in Jhenaidah, 234 in Sirajganj, 471 in Pabna, 91 in Sylhet and 79 in Sherpur districts, will be shut down, to streamline local and national voluntary organisations.
According to Article 10(2) of Voluntary Social Welfare Agencies ( Registration and Control) Ordinance, the government could prohibit activities of any such voluntary organisation, for violating rules and laws.
District- and upazila-level social welfare offices have already sent notices to the NGOs, said Rahman. They have also put up advertisements in local and national newspapers and held one-to-one hearings with managements of affected NGOs, he added.
The ordinance states that an individual or institute could get registrations to run social welfare activities in 15 categories – welfare of children, youth, women, physically and mentally challenged people, juvenile delinquents, beggars and destitutes, medical patients, family-planning, entertainment programmes, social and senior education, rehabilitation and welfare of released convicts.
As of 2009, the department of social services had registered 57,966 voluntary organisations. Of these, 16,341 had registered themselves during 2001-2006, 6,070 during 2007-2008, and 2,306 in 2009.
Meanwhile, activists pointed out that the government’s move may affect development activities in the country.
A large number of NGOs have already withdrawn their programmes to get rid of the hassles of facing district or upazila social welfare officers, regarding their activities.
NGO activists alleged that the ministry, in the name of streamlining voluntary organisations, has not been providing new registrations for the last couple of months.
In 2009, the DSS had found that 23,280 of the 50,997 registered NGOs, in spite of receiving government allocations, have become “signboard NGOs”, and had been lying inactive for several years.
The DSS will gradually cancel the registrations of these sign-board NGO’s, said a senior official the ministry.
Earlier, the government had shut down 4,184 NGOs, as the organisations failed to comply with necessary rules and laws.
There are 540 micro-financing institutes, registered with the Microcredit Regulatory Authority, under the MRA Act, 2006. About 1.52 lakh NGOs are registered with the department of co-operatives under the Cooperative Society Act, 2001, while nearly 1,000 more are registered with Office of the Registrar, Joint Stock Companies and Firms, 16,030 with Department of Women and Children Affairs, 1,000,000 with Department of Youth Development, and another 2,023 NGOs, with the NGO Affairs Bureau (NGOAB).
