Concerns Regarding Compliance Statement by the National Bureau for NGOs”
We have learned of the recent statement by the National Bureau for NGOs in relation to compliance with NGO Act, 2016 by some organizations.
While we encourage our partners and members to comply with the law, we are concerned that the Press Statement was released without prior notice to some of the affected organizations. We have already contacted the majority of the organizations and learned that many of them were neither informed of the decision nor given an opportunity to respond before this press release.
This is against the principle of Natural Justice and defeats the intent of the NGO Act, 2016 which provides organizations a right to be heard before such a decision is taken.
We also note with concern that the Bureau has listed entities that are duly incorporated by the Registration Services Bureau (URSB) as companies limited by guarantee and certainly beyond the Bureau’s jurisdiction. This imposes an unnecessary inconvenience on these entities especially given that the Bureau acted without giving the entities a fair hearing.
We are still consulting with all the relevant stakeholders involved and will make a more detailed response in due course.
