Kathmandu, September 21

The government is preparing to introduce a new law to ensure transparency in the activities of non-governmental organisations.

According to Spokesperson for the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare Toyam Raya, the ministry has prepared draft of the legislation by incorporating suggestions and recommendations from stakeholders, including NGOs and INGOs. He said the draft legislation had been sent to the Ministry of Finance for approval.

“The draft would be finalised after incorporating suggestions from the Ministry of Law and the Ministry of Finance. The draft would be sent to the Cabinet for approval before sending it to the Legislature-Parliament for discussion,” Raya said.

Explaining the need for the new law, Raya said the Social Welfare Act, 2049 was now outdated and the new legislation would replace it.

According to him, the draft legislation requires NGOs and INGOs to keep their source of funding and transactions transparent and to carry out work that directly benefit the community they work for.

Similarly, the draft legislation has a provision of imposing a fine or terminating registration of any NGO found violating the law of the land. Currently, 46,200 NGOs are registered with the Social Welfare Council. Of them, only 10,000 are functional.

SWC Member-secretary Dilli Bhatta said only 10,000 NGOs out of 46,200 were regularly submitting their annual reports to the council.

Many NGOs are violating the provision which requires registered NGOs to submit their annual report of income, expenditure, and audit on time.

The council was set up 40 years ago with the objective of providing service to the people of various classes, communities, castes, ethnicity, gender and geographical regions.

Meanwhile, the council has decided to observe the 38th Social Service Day on Tuesday by organising various programmes. President Bidhya Devi Bhandari is scheduled to attend the event.