Sri Lanka's Ministry of Defence is to impose regulations on foundations align with recent restrictions placed on NGOs.
The regulations will require all non profit organisations, trust and some societies to be registered with the NGO Secretariat, the Sunday Times reports.
“Under the proposed amendments, they will have to register with the Secretariat or lose the right to receive foreign funds and conduct local monetary transactions,” said the director of the National NGO Secretariat, Saman Dissanayake, was quoted by the paper as saying.
“They will have to submit reports to us every three months about their activities. They will have to sign standard Memorandums of Understanding with us like NGOs do. The current provision for lifetime registration will be replaced by annually renewable registration.”
“There are plenty of people who will readily give money for activities to destabilise the country and the Government. Foreign funds can be used for good purposes and bad purposes," he added.
See more here.
In July Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Defence sent letters to all non-governmental organisations, demanding that they refrain from activities beyond their mandate, including press conferences, workshops, training for journalists, and the publication of press releases.
The letter, signed by Dissanayake, said NGOs should “prevent from such unauthorised activities with immediate effect”.
Earlier this month the Secretariat announced that four NGOs would be subject to investigations for failing to comply with the regulations.
See related articles:
Government to stop NGOs from receiving foreign funding - Divaina (21 Jul 2014)
Sri Lankan Minister warns against 'foreign countries and NGOs' (20 Jul 2014)
New NGO law to be enacted (14 Jul 2014)
NGOs armed LTTE – Sri Lankan Prime Minister (11 Jul 2014)
Government defends NGO restrictions (10 Jul 2014
Government to close bank accounts of NGOs not registered with MoD (10 July 2014)
US ‘concerned’ about MoD circular restricting NGO activities (09 July 2014)
Military denies attempts to restrict NGO activities (08 July 2014)
Severe restrictions placed on NGO activities by Ministry of Defence (07 July 2014)
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