Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Regulatory Authority Chief Executive Officer Edward Chileka has threatened to blacklist all NGOs that will not comply, register and get license from the NGOs regulator body come 31st May, 2024.
The organization issued a statement earlier this year calling all organisations to register and get license from the institutions by 31st March 2024, a development he said has received overwhelming response as to date close to 500 have registered and got licensed comparing to last year.
But speaking to an engagement with NGOs representatives in Blantyre on Tuesday, Chileka said statistics are showing that the country has over 1200 NGOs and others are still failing to register and get license from his institution.
“We have clear evidence that some NGOs are being used as a tool for money laundering, that is why they are failing to come forward and register with us. They are getting millions but nothing on the ground meaning all money are going into their pockets.
“These are “terrorists funds” being used for their personal purposes. Come 31st May, 2024 we shall put order in all service providers like Banks, Immigration, MRA among others to do business with only those registered and licensed with NGO regulatory body.
“We are here to ensure that all NGOs are working in a good environment and where they have problems they should come to us and they will be assisted accordingly,” he said.
Chileka therefore said government through NGO body has set aside K1 billion to build local capacity for NGOs so that they should be able to deliver as expected and change the shape of the society.
He added,” we need to ask ourselves as to why people are still trapped in poverty despite NGOs carrying out different interventions. This NGO fund will help us to do things differently since more will be trained in different skills and do business unusual.
He said it is pathetic that other NGOs continues to work without being registered and licensed by the authority saying this tendency is raising suspicious as what exactly they are up to since there are no transparency in their operations.
On her part, Martha Kwataine who is the Special Advisor to the President on NGOs and Civil Society expressed the need for NGO to follow compliance procedures saying this should be their culture in their everyday operations.
Kwataine said while NGOs continues to address development challenges in the country, it is important to legally obtained valid license from NGO’s regulator body adding these are basic things that should be followed.
“There are some basic things like registering, getting license and reporting that NGOs need to do at all cost. As government I can assure all people that we shall always strive for cordial; relationships with NGOs,” she said.
Meanwhile, Bettie Chumbu who is Programmes Manager for Development Communications Trust has commended Regulatory body for establishing the NGOs funds as well as ensuring that all NGOs are registered and licensed saying this is timely and will bring sanity in the country.
