Govt drops plan to create NGO fund

State minister for Internal Affairs James Baba speaks at Parliament on Wednesday. The minister withdrew the Non–Governmental Organisations Bill, 2015. PHOTO BY FAISWAL KASIRYE

Parliament.

The government has dropped its proposal to create a fund to finance non–governmental organisations (NGOs).
This came after many MPs said government, which always laments about budget deficits, could not fund NGOs.

Worse, they said, creating a fund for NGOs could lead to the creation of NGOs whose sole goal would be to get free government money.

Mr James Baba, the State minister of Internal Affairs, said the government dropped the proposal because the Executive and Parliament had failed to reach consensus.
“We had come in good faith, hoping we would reach consensus on this matter. Since there is no consensus, I withdraw the proposal,” Mr Baba said.

The Executive, through the non–governmental organisations Bill, 2015, had proposed the creation of such a fund.
This, it argued, would protect the country’s national interest given that many NGOs get funding from foreign donors, whose interests could be at variance with Uganda’s. Mr Simon Mulongo, the Bubulo East (MP), said the refusal to fund NGOs is a blow to Uganda.

“To do away with the fund denies our local NGOs and CBOs to emerge and run independently – even when they want to stand on their own feet to object to certain wrong things… morals parachuted into Uganda from outside,” Mr Mulongo said.

“Of the thousands of NGOs we have in the country, 99.9 per cent operate using support from outside Uganda. This endangers our sovereignty. It means we can have interests of external forces override our national interest,” added Mr Mulongo, who once worked for the Internal Security Organisation.

Disputed
Serere Woman MP Alice Alaso said it is not the duty of the government to fund NGOs.
“The business of the government is to create an enabling environment for NGOs to do their work, not to fund them,” said Ms Alaso.

She questioned where the government would mobilise the additional resources to fund the NGOs.
The government raises revenue from taxes and also borrows internally and externally to meet its financial obligations.
Prof Tarsis Kabwegyere, the State minister for General Duties in the Prime Minister’s Office, said that government would not have in any case funded all NGOs.

Mr Fox Odoi, the West Budama North (MP), said if public resources were invested in non–governmental organisations, they would cease to be NGOs; they would become publicly–funded entities.

“Do you want to create a regime that would permit you to invest public resources in NGOs and then audit them?” Mr Odoi asked.