Additional amendments to the Private Voluntary Organisation Amendment (PVO) Bill are being tabled, criminalising civil society organisations’ funding of political parties and candidates and providing civil penalties for receiving or moving money outside banking platforms.
This follows a series of meetings between the Government
and civil society organisations to find common ground on the Bill.
There will also be an annual all-stakeholder meeting for
non-government organisations and the Government to discuss issues of mutual
interest.
The amendments are now before Parliament and Public
Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister, Professor Paul Mavima will table
them in the National Assembly soon and move them as amendments at the committee
stage, which discusses the Bill clause by clause and is the moment new clauses
can be added.
Regarding political activism, the Bill in its current form
contains a provision that would allow the registration of a PVO to be cancelled
if it engages in political activities, but did not detail what that meant nor
lay down criminal penalties if there was a breach.
The proposed clause 9B now reads as follows: “Any private
voluntary organisation that supports or opposes any political party or
candidate in a presidential, parliamentary or local government election, or is
a party to any breach of Part III of the Political Parties (Finance) Act as a
contributor of funds to a political party or candidate or otherwise, shall be
guilty of an offence and liable to a fine of level twelve or to imprisonment
for a period not exceeding one year, or both such fine or such imprisonment.”
The clause makes it clear that this does not apply to a PVO
which assists members of disadvantaged groups to become candidates for election
to Parliament or any local authority, provided that such assistance is afforded
in a strictly non-partisan manner.
The proposed new clause 11 provides additional amendments
that allow for civil penalties on movement of money outside banking channels by
civil society organisations.
It reads as follows: “A registered private voluntary
organisation shall be guilty of a civil default if there is well founded
information available to the Registrar indicating that it has not used formal
channels (that is to say registered banking institutions or other financial
intermediaries regulated in Zimbabwe or in any other state) for the
transmission of its funds at every point from source to destination.”
Other amendments include the insertion of a new clause
requiring the Registrar of PVOs to convene annual forums bringing together all
stakeholders to discuss issues of mutual interest.
There will also be a clause requiring anyone applying for
the registration of a PVO to provide the Registrar with particulars of any
beneficial ownership and of the persons who control the organisation to ensure
transparency.
Clause 8 requires the minister, at least once every five
years and with the co-operation of the Reserve Bank’s Financial Intelligence
Unit, to assess the vulnerability of PVOs and other similar organisations to
being used for terrorist financing and money laundering.
This is now common in many areas of life in many
jurisdictions as money movements have to be tightened up.
The Bill allows authorities to enter into agreements with
the government of any other country or to render reciprocal assistance in a number
of areas such as registration of PVOs, exchange of information on PVOs, among
other issues.
In particular, agreements will allow the registrar of PVOs
or the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Reserve Bank to seek details of
beneficial ownership or other information in respect of any company from the
foreign counterpart, and in return provide details of beneficial ownership or
other information in respect of any company to the foreign authority.
The initial Bill was published in November last year and it
is meant to rationalise operations of NGOs and civil society organisations so
that they stick to their core mandate. Herald
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