Malawi NGOs to disclose expenditures
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) will start disclosing and reporting to the public their expenditures as one way of achieving transparency and accountability.
This is one of the resolutions contained in the NGO Governance Charter that the Council for Non-Governmental Organisations in Malawi (Congoma) agreed on in Blantyre in 2007 during its annual general meeting.
Malawi President Peter Mutharika will officially launch the Charter, which is aimed at strengthening self-regulation, on September 12 2014.
“The Charter will achieve transparency and accountability in NGOs operations, enhance image of the NGOs in public sphere and increase learning among NGOs themselves on issues of governance,” said a statement from Congoma.
NGOs have been refusing to disclose their sources of funds and how they are spent. Asked why there is a turn of heart this time, Congoma boss Voice Mhone denied that they did not want to disclose their transactions.
“What we didn’t agree to was a directive government made that NGOs should be sending returns to the Reserve Bank of Malawi [RBM]. This was wrong because NGOs are accountable to the NGO Board and not RBM. That is why we asked them to tell us the law that backed their directive,” sad Mhone.
He could, however, not say how the NGOs will make themselves accountable to the public, saying the meeting that will take place a day before the launch will decide.
The statement also points out that the Charter will provide increased visibility of Malawians on NGO governance issues as well as improve focus of NGO public benefit activities.
