Minister of Internal Affairs Gen. Jeje Odongo has announced the dates for the NGO Verification and validation exercise saying that the programme will start from 9 August, 2019 to 7 September, 2019.
According to the Minister, the NGO verification and validation exercise will help to determine meaningful relationships, correlations, and variations in the data with the NGO Bureau and districts to ascertain the status of NGOs operating in the country.
The Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) Act 2016 established the National Bureau for NGOs (NGO Bureau) as a semi-autonomous entity under the Ministry of Internal Affairs to replace the National NGO Board. The Bureau is mandated to register, regulate, monitor, inspect, coordinate and oversee NGO operations in the country.
Odongo said that, in order to effectively implement the NGO regulatory framework, there was a need for a verification and validation of the information on NGOs.
“In order to effectively implement the NGO regulatory framework, there was a need for a verification and validation of the information on NGOs. We’ve now embarked on an NGO verification and validation exercise which is still ongoing,” he said.
On 8th April 2019, a communication was sent out to all districts requesting for a copy of the Community Based Organisations (CBO) register and NGO inventory.
Out of 128, 71 districts submitted their NGO verification data and 57 did not comply. Odongo said that the exercise is now to follow up on non-compliant NGOs.
“We are making a follow up on the NGO verification non-compliant districts and also engaging the Ministry of Local Government. A database for CBOs was developed and the process of updating is on-going,” he said.
“With effect from 31st July 2019, the National NGO register indicates that there were 14,207 registered NGOs, out of which 3,810 had valid permits, while 10,397 had expired permits,” he added.
Odongo warned the NGOs that are currently running on fake documents to comply with the law and follow correct procedures.