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Saturday, August 17, 2013

Govt urges I/NGOs to work under laws

Bishnu Prasad Aryal
Kathmandu, August 17

The Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development has urged all the international and national non-government organisations working in the local bodies to abide by existing laws of the country.

More than 230 INGOs and 1,000 national level NGOs have been working in the local bodies, according to the MoFALD. Among them, 20 to 25 per cent of the I/NGOs are yet to coordinate with the local bodies as per the laws in course of carrying out development activities. There are 75 districts, 3,915 village development committees and 58 municipalities across the country.

The Clause 209 (1) of Local Self-Governance Act 2055 BS and Clause 58 of Local Bodies Resource Mobilisation and Management Guideline 2069 BS have provisioned the I/NGOs to coordinate with local bodies by signing agreement and working responsibly while carrying out development activities and mobilising resources in the local bodies.

"However, more than one-fifth of the I/NGOs working in the local bodies have not coordinated with the local bodies by signing any agreement in local level," said the MoFALD officials. "This is against the laws of the country," they said.

Prakash Amatya, member of Fresh Water Action Netwok South Asia, admitted that some of the I/NGOs were investing and working directly against the rules despite legal registration of I/NGOs to Social Welfare Council and District Administration Offices. "It is the government's and Social Welfare Council's weakness not to monitor them and bring them under laws," he said.

Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya, spokesperson for the MoFALD, said that they have asked all the district development committees to submit details of the I/NGOs working in the local bodies. "We are not against the I/NGOs and are not trying to control them. But we need them and they should also abide by the laws of the country while doing anything here," he added.

There are four categories of non-government organisations working in the local bodies--INGOs, central level NGOs, national level NGOs and local level NGOs.

Local level NGOs are based in local levels in districts and villages while national level NGOs that invest and mobilise resources given by I/NGOs in the local bodies. "There is not any problem of coordination with these two categories of the organisations," said the government officials. "However, the problem is with INGOs and central level NGOs that invest funds directly in the local bodies without coordination and agreement with them as per the laws," they said.

The I/NGOs choose a ward of a village or only a few targeted groups in the districts. They sensitise the local people but do not satisfy the people with their work. The I/NGOs shall either a whole district or a whole community of the district while they are working in the local bodies if they are interested in working for the development, according to the MoFALD officials. "They should own and take responsibilities of projects they have initiated," they said. "There is duplication of works with the government development programmes and lack of transparency in their activities. We are unknown about what and how they are doing in the local bodies."

The Non-Government Organisations Guideline 2061 BS and Local Self Governance Act 2055 BS have provisioned responsibility of I/NGOs, accountability, and transparency, restricting duplication of works in the local bodies. "The NGOs deliberately duplicate programmes with government programmes and prepare documents of project completion without investing anything," the government officials claimed.