Telephone law froze non-governmental organizations

Accounts of objectionable NGOs have been frozen by order of the Central Bank. Such a fate befell most legal entities - members of the Coalition of NGOs "Transparency in the extractive industries." The notice from the Ministry of Justice on reporting by NGOs does not help.

According to the head of the Center for Support to Economic Initiatives Azer Mehdiyev, this situation was expected after February 3 this year, when the President approved amendments to the law "On the non-governmental organizations" and other legal acts, executive toughening attitude towards civil society. Thus, under Article 223-1 of the Code of Administrative Offences (failure to register copies of contracts and regulations of grant), the maximum fine is 7,000 manat – it used to be from 1,000 to 2,500 manats.

The politics of dividing the third sector into their own and others provides the first "bitter fruit," said Mehdiyev. Despite the resolution of the Ministry of Justice to carry out operations with accounts, banks refer to the prohibiting instruction of the Central Bank. "In the CBA AR complainants were reported that it is a technical question, and will be decided in a couple of hours. However, for the third day, we cannot withdraw money from the account, tearing the agreement with our partners. NGO activity is based on the good name of its leadership; so because of the destructive position of the CBA, we could lose respect among the donors," said the scientist-economist.

According to him, the reason for such behavior of officials is that the country is governed not by laws, but by the telephone right and verbal orders. - 17D-