NGOs to Be Deprived of Right to Cash Transactions - Azay Guliyev

Baku / 21.04.17 / Turan: Changes introduced in recent years in Azerbaijani legislation on NGOs were due to three reasons: ensuring full transparency and accountability of local and foreign NGOs and donors, elimination of duplication in financing of the same projects, and ensuring the interests of national security. This was said by the head of the Council for State Support of NGOs under the President of Azerbaijan, MP Azay Guliyev in an interview with the Voice of America.

Explaining the national security factor, Guliyev said Azerbaijan is in a sensitive geopolitical region, part of the country's territories are occupied by Armenia and surrounded by “not so convenient” neighbors.

“Today there is support for radical aspirations in Azerbaijan, there are even facts supporting the terrorist activities of radical religious groups.

 There have been attempts to support such activities under the guise of NGOs or through NGOs. Therefore, to ensure national security, amendments were made,” Guliyev said. However, he did not give specific examples of how terrorist activities were financed through NGOs.

Guliyev does not agree with the criticism of these changes in the legislation contained in the recommendations “On the Conception of Legislation and Practice in the Sphere of NGOs of Azerbaijan in accordance with the standards of the Council of Europe” prepared by the CE experts.

In his opinion, the recommendations contain contradictions, and some issues are absent in the Azerbaijani legislation.

At the same time, Guliyev acknowledged the existence of problems for the activities of NGOs and did not rule out changes in legislation in the future.

The NGO Support Council, for its part, prepares proposals for simplifying the registration procedures for NGOs, facilitating their access to financial resources, and eliminating some of the obstacles in their practical activities.

Touching upon the issues of establishing a dialogue between the government and NGOs, Guliyev said that in September 2016 a “unique” Platform for Government-Civil Society Dialogue was created. For the first time all the branches of power jointly recognized civil society as their partner.

In a short time, according to Guliyev, the platform has achieved significant goals. In particular, a presidential decree was issued on the introduction of the procedure for registering grant agreements of foreign donors on the principle of a “single window”.

The platform is an open structure and any NGO can enter it, regardless of political views.

On the question whether there are any initiatives on civil society in the agenda of the parliament, Guliyev answered that he personally presented three bills "On social order", "On charitable activity" and "On professional knowledge".

In the short term, in particular at the autumn session of parliament, there will be a realistic discussion of the law "On social order".

In addition, proposals are discussed in the Financial Markets Supervisory Authority, for which cash operations within the framework of NGOs are completely excluded and even the smallest amount will be paid through banks.

“There is concern in this matter and we will continue the dialogue with the relevant structures to eliminate it. If the NGO has any suggestions, we are ready to discuss them,” Guliyev said. -06D-