A group of civil society organisations (CSO) in Tanzania has expressed concern over the delay in the process of securing approval for the execution of donor-funded projects.
It was gathered that the delay is tied to the Non-Governmental Organisation (NGOs) Act (Amendments) Regulations 2018, which requires contracts or agreements entered by a donor or a person granting funds exceeding Sh20 million to be first submitted to the treasury and to the registrar of the organisations.
Development Diaries learnt that the leaders of the CSOs said that the regulation had been formulated without considering the practicability of the process following recent delays in approval.
They added that the move could deny Tanzanians access to donor funds, money which is used to implement development projects in various sectors, including education, health, water as well as monitoring execution of different undertaken activities.
Some of the CSOs noted that their projects had remained unapproved at the registrar’s office for over three months, saying bureaucracy should be expected as NGOs could be directed to visit and deliberate with other government offices, including respective ministries.
The Executive Director at Haki Elimu, John Kalaghe, said, ‘Funds sourced externally involved a very competitive market requiring NGOs to observe various conditions including execution timeframe. For instance, accessing funds from the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) that supports governments and CSOs on education matters, write-ups meeting donor’s criteria, country and global obligations such as sustainable development goals (SDGs) have to be considered’.
He added that the contracts or agreements contain implementation framework, whose delay could cause a serious dispute between CSOs and donors that could potentially end in legal suits over misuse of disbursed funds.
The Executive Director of Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC), Anna Henga, said that she did not dispute the laws and regulations that intend to regulate operations of NGOs in the country but the previous procedures requiring NGOs to submit comprehensive annual reports comprising financial reports that show generated funds, expenditures, deficit, tax paid, executed activities, achievements and outcome should be continued as donors wanted accountability and transparency on funds disbursed to CSOs for implementation of development projects.
As for the National Coordinator at the Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition (THRDC), Onesmo Olengurumwa, he said that despite the good intention of the law and regulation, NGOs will be in serious trouble once put under stern implementations.
‘I propose to use information communication technology (ICT) when sending and receiving documents from the registrar. The treasury should be excluded in overseeing NGOs and leave mandates to the Registrar’, he said.
Source: The Citizen
Photo source: GovernmentZA
