JVP Govt. soften on NGOs to please UNHRC??
The JVP Malimawa government has decided to delay the enactment of the proposed piece of legislation for monitoring and supervision of both local and international NGOs despite the availability of the final draft of the bill finalised by the previous rule.
The need for monitoring and supervision of NGOs has been debated for well over a period of two decades because of complaints about unchecked spending and working against the national interests of the country. Specially, most of the NGO are working against the Sinhala Buddhists by converting poor Buddhists to other religions mainly to born again Christianity while others are working to promote separatism and extremism. The Easter Sunday attack is results of all of these. There are very few NGOs engaged in humanitarian, and charitable work in Sri Lanka.
Currently, NGOs are registered in terms of different laws – the voluntary Social Service Organisations (Registration and Monitoring) Act No. 31 of 1980 and Amendment Act No 08 of 1998, the Companies Act No. 17 of 1982, the Special Acts of Parliament, the Societies Act of 1972, the Companies Ordinance, the Protection of the Rights of Elders Act No 09 of 2000, the Consumer Affairs Authority Act, and the Trustee Ordinance.
There are thousands of NGOs operating in the country, but only 1,895 of them have been registered with the National NGO Secretariat, which
currently functions under the Public Security Ministry. The proposed law is meant to make it mandatory for all NGOs to register with the Secretariat.
In the evolution of the new piece of legislation by the last government, there was pressure from NGOs and sections of the diplomatic community, which cited it as an attempt to stifle freedom for civil society. One of such diplomat backed NGO is USAID who has worked to topple a government is Sri Lanka.
However, the new government, ahead of the UNHRC session, has taken a soft stand regarding NGOs. According to a letter from the Foreign Ministry, the government is now seeking to place the National NGO Secretariat under the purview of Rural Development, Social Security and Communit Empowerment by the end of this month. This is very soft management of so -called NGOs by taking them from the security authorities. The pro-NGO JVP and NPP government seem want to please both UNHRC and western diplomants by taking such soft actions towards the NGO.
Way back in 2006, a parliamentary select committee was appointed under the chair of Foreign Affairs Minister Vijitha Herath, who was then an MP in the opposition. The committee submitted an interim report with recommendations regarding NGOs. It, among others, recommended at that time that the audit reports of NGOs be prepared in compliance with the accepted audit standards of Sri Lanka and be subjected to direct supervision and investigation of the Auditor General. It seems that Vijith Herath is going back and pleasing the dollar rich NGO
for political advantage at the risk of national security and social liability of the Country.
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