ZIMBABWE: Govt says it may soon de-register 30 NGOs

JOHANNESBURG, 2 Mar 2005 (IRIN) - The Zimbabwe government may soon de-register at least 30 NGOs for failing to provide details of donor funds channelled into the country through them last year, a senior offical told IRIN.

The minister of public service, labour and social welfare, Paul Mangwana, said the state had reasonable grounds to believe that the funds, meant for rural sanitation and infrastructure development programmes, had been redirected into supporting "anti-government activities".

Mangwana told IRIN that according to the Private Voluntary Organisations (PVO) Act, NGOs were required to submit periodic reports of any donor funding received as part of aid appeals made by the government, but the NGOs concerned had failed to submit audited statements of their accounts to his ministry, despite several written requests between October and December 2004.

"The government appealed and got more than US $210 million [in humanitarian assistance], but the donors chose to channel the funding directly to the NGOs. As the responsible ministry, we are empowered by law to demand statements of accounts from the organisations, and to check their books to see how they spent any money sent to them for programmes under the government appeal. Of the 35 we dealt with in this issue, only five submitted the necessary statements," the minister explained.

"However, we have written several notices to the concerned organisations to demand their books, without success. We are now in the process of drafting final letters of demand before we take action." He said the most likely penalty would be suspension from operating or de-registration.

Although he declined to name the organisations facing government sanctions, Mangwana said they had been involved in rural sanitation and infrastructure revival programmes across the country.

Jonah Mudehwe, the spokesman for the National Association of Non-Governmental Organisations (NANGO), said there had been no communication between the ministry and the association on the possible de-registration of its members, but confirmed having received complaints from some NGOs about the government's demand to audit their accounts.

"NANGO has not been notified of possible action against its members. We have only received complaints from individual organisations worried about demands from the state. We are surprised by this development, because it appears the state has given itself the duty to audit accounts - something which we believe should be done by the donors."

He noted that some member organisations feared the government was using provisions in the new NGO Bill, which was still awaiting President Robert Mugabe's signature for enactment, and pointed out that the existing Private Voluntary Organisations (PVO) Act had no provision for state supervision of NGO accounts.

"The PVO Act provides only for the appointment of a senior civil officer in the ministry of public service to probe accounts or general management, where there is reasonable cause to believe accountability is at risk," the NANGO spokesman explained.

The NGOs could only account for the use of funds to specific donors, while their responsibility to government was to give regular updates of their activities. Allegations that the funds could have been misdirected to fund "anti-government activities" were "disturbing, but expected, as elections draw closer", Mudehwe commented.

Mangwana insisted that some NGOs had funded the opposition and "anti-government activities, in the name of democratisation", adding that many were still actively working to undermine the ruling party, and there was a need to monitor their activities and protect the country's citizens.

Over 300 local and 30 international NGOs were operating in Zimbabwe at the end of last year. However, the new NGO Bill has paralysed the activities of those involved in human rights and civic voter education.

The NGO bill bans foreign NGOs concerned principally with "issues of governance", and denies registration to NGOs receiving foreign funding for "promotion and protection of human rights and political governance issues".

The warning to NGOs, which have helped the humanitarian community feed millions of drought-affected Zimbabweans for three consecutive years, comes as some aid agencies have raised the alarm over further food insecurity across the country.

[ENDS]