MPs, SC judges cannot take foreign funds

The cabinet yesterday approved the draft of Foreign Contributions (Voluntary Activities) Regulation Act, 2014 to ensure proper inspection and monitoring of foreign-funded NGOs in the country.
The proposed law will ensure transparency, accountability and appropriate use of foreign contributions to the NGOs, Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told newsmen after a cabinet meeting at the secretariat.
The proposed law prohibits political parties, lawmakers, Supreme Court judges, government and semi-government officials and employees, and candidates of national and local body elections from taking any foreign donations, he said.
Under the act, no NGO will be able to take up any project and implement it with foreign donations without the approval of the NGO Affairs Bureau.
Individuals will have to take approval from the bureau and make clear the source of the foreign funds and their areas of utilisation.
NGOs concerned would be warned for violation of the law in the first step, Musharraf said, adding that the 10-year registration would be cancelled and a fine would be slapped on the firm in the later phases.
But in case of any criminal offence like financing or patronising terrorism and militancy, human trafficking and drug smuggling, criminal procedures will be followed, he noted.
There are now some 2,303 NGOs, including 270 foreign ones in the country, registered with the NGO Affairs Bureau.
The cabinet also approved the draft of the National Insurance Policy, 2014.
RETRACTABLE SPIKE STRIPS
The PM yesterday turned down a few ministers' pleas for removing the recently installed retractable spike strips on Hare Road in the capital.
The retractable spike strips were installed by the Dhaka Metropolitan Police aimed at preventing from vehicles running on the wrong side of the road.
Ministers during an informal discussion after the weekly cabinet meeting told the PM that their movements were being hampered due to the device on the road, said meeting sources.
In response, the premier questioned as to why they went to the wrong side. She said setting the device is a good initiative.