The government has decided to close down Bangladesh NGO Foundation, a non-profit organisation of the government, as part of a move to cut administrative costs, officials of the banking division under the finance ministry said.
While in Washington during the Bank-Fund board meeting, Finance Minister AMA Muhith told the Dhaka Tribune: “We have already decided to close down Bangladesh NGO Foundation because it has no work last couple of years.”
He said the shutdown would help the government to save some money from the revenue budget.
Prime minister Sheikh Hasina has already given her consent about the matter and the banking division would supervise the closure procedure, Muhith said.
Finance division sources said the government was spending below Tk1m per month for salaries and other fixed expenses of the foundation but the division had not made any allocations in the last two years.
Two years ago the division issued Tk50m for the construction of a Bangladesh NGO Foundation building under the 2010-11 budget.
On August 2012, a comprehensive investigation carried out by the macroeconomic wing of the finance division found that the foundation’s performance was poor compared to other regulatory authorities.
The finance division also suggested that all such entities should be brought under a single comprehensive regulatory framework.
Now the country’s NGOs are operating under the auspices of the Microcredit Regulatory Authority (MRA), Palli Karma Shahayak Foundation (PKSF), the NGO Bureau and the NGO Foundation.
Managing director of Bangladesh NGO Foundation Abu Taher Khan told the Dhaka Tribune he was not aware of any decisions to shut down his organisation.