NGO Accountability and Government Supervision

1
NGO Accountability and Government Supervision

• Catherine Shea
• ICNL

2
Accountability Requirements

• To whom? (Supervision)
• On what? (Extent of supervision)
• How? (Forms of reporting)
• Public Access
• Balancing Bureaucracy
• Enforcement issues

3
Supervisory Bodies

• Internal Accountability (Boards)
• Supervising Agency
• Tax Authorities
• Donors (government / private)
• Other agencies (e.g.licensing)

4
Public Accountability for PBOs

• Linked to benefits provided
• Transparency
• What do we do? How do we spend our funds?
• Accountability
• What did we achieve? What are the results of our
  work and of spending the funds?
• Increased requirements for PBOs financed from
  public sources (Hungary).

5
Public Accountability for PBOs

• Programmatic reports
• Ensuring public access
• Providing for confidentiality of certain
  information (i.e., sensitive employee or client
  information)
• Financial reports / Tax filings
• Audit requirements
• Inspection of PBO

6
Public Access

• Record keeping
• Publishing reports
• Limits
• Protection of business interests
• Privacy considerations
• Financial burden on PBO

7
Balancing Bureaucracy

• Reasonable level of detail (comparable to
  requirements from business companies)
• Differentiation by size (income level)
• Minimized financial burden on NGO

8
Public Accountability for PBOs

• Enforcement of Accountability Requirements
• Notice of violation and opportunity to correct
  except in cases of imminent public harm
• Fines and other penalties
• Loss of PBO status
• No retention of benefits of status accrues during
  violation
• Separate from other forms of state supervision
  (e.g. related to licensing regulations).