A clarification on a Daily Star news item

Dhaka 30 January 2010: Executive Director of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has been misquoted in a report headlined ‘New Regulatory Body on NGOs on the Cards’ published by the Daily Star on January 30, 2010. TIB did recommend an independent NGO Commission, but not one to be constituted by representatives of the various concerned Ministries.

Dr. Iftekharuzzaman said the proposed Commission must be fully independent of the Government, as well as any other stakeholder including the NGO sector itself. The Government may set up a coordination cell consisting of representatives of various registering authorities in order to build up their coordination and information sharing capacity, lack of which is one of the main reasons behind challenges faced by the sector. Such a body cannot, however, be viewed as the same as the proposed NGO Commission, which should be sufficiently empowered and independent to oversee compliance by the NGO sector as well as various relevant Government authorities.

TIB holds the view that for the NGO sector self-regulation is the best regulation. The proposed Code of Conduct of NGOs should be developed by the NGO umbrella organizations, while each NGO should also adopt and enforce their own on the basis of the sectoral code of conduct. The proposed Commission can only develop a template and set of guiding principles for such a Code of Conduct on the basis of consultation with all stakeholders.

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