Azerbaijani Parliament tightens financial control over NGOs

On February 15, the National Assembly of Azerbaijan adopted amendments to some legislative acts of the country, which are aimed at tightening the financial control over the activities of civil society institutions.

The amendments provide for new types of fines ranging from 500 manats (about 640 US dollars) to 15,000 manats (about 19,100 US dollars) for any NGOs' failure to provide information about grant agreements, received donations and other funds received without grant agreements, and received cash. The funds being the subject of the offence will be confiscated.

During the discussion, only a few representatives of the parties of the parliamentary minority opposed the innovations. They said that there was no need for the amendments, as NGOs without that are presenting their financial reports to the authorities about their grants and donors. Critics of the bill argued that technical errors may occur in financial statements of NGOs; therefore, it is wrong to impose such sanctions.

The amendments were supported by Azai Guliev, an MP and the head of the Council for State Support of NGOs under the Azerbaijani President. "The amendments will create conditions for greater transparency of the activities of NGOs," he said.

Gaps in the legislation create possibilities to use grants not to the purpose, but sometimes to running religious propaganda, said Ali Guseinli, the chairman of the parliamentary committee on legal policy and state-building.