admin
Herald Reporter
AT least 240 Private Voluntary Organisations (PVOs) have been directed to submit audited financial statements and their annual reports, among other requirements, by the end of next month, in line with the enabling law or face deregistration.
In a statement, the Registrar of PVOs, Mr Tawanda Zimhunga, said the organisation had noted with concern that some PVOs were yet to comply with the law.
“The Registrar of PVOs has noted with concern that a number of registered Private Voluntary Organisations (PVO) are not complying with the prescribed expectations of their operations, as outlined in terms of the PVO Act (Chapter 17:05).
“Section 15 of the Act mandates PVOs to provide audited financial statements, annual activity reports and other returns to the PVO Registrar annually. Accordingly, the registrar has therefore come up with a list of non-complaint PVOs, who are called to approach the offices of the Department of Social Development across the country and provide current activity reports and audited financial statements by August 30, 2024, failure of which would lead to the deregistration of such organisations, as outlined in terms of section 10 (c) of the Act. 2,” he said.
“Please find a list of the classified non-complaint-organisations within our register. For further information, please approach the Registrar’s office for PVOs, Offices 109/305 at Compensation Building, corner Central and Simon Muzenda Street, provincial and district Social Welfare offices around the country. PVOs are to provide up to date information about their current executive board members, physical address, contact details, audited financial statements as well as activity reports and where applicable, websites, social media pages showing the list of activities being conducted”.
In the same vein, operational PVOs that may have changed their contact details have also been called upon to provide the same with the Registrar.
Some of the organisations with overdue reports include Howard Mission/Salvation Army, the Musasa Project, Action Aid, Young Men’s Christian Association, Accelerated Development Initiative, Mercy Corps, Zibakwe Trust, St Mary’s Children Village, Life Care International, FACT, Bethany Project, Zimbabwe National Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (ZNNP+) and Consolidated Africa Services among others.
Parliament is currently considering the Private Voluntary Organisation Amendment Bill, aimed at ensuring that there is tightening up of financial accounting and that the PVOs stick to their core mandate.
Recently, in his presentation before the National Assembly, Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi said law-abiding citizens had nothing to worry about the Bill.
He said some charity organisations were acting in a politically-partisan way by channelling money to preferred political parties and candidates.
The Bill seeks to punish those who may be tempted to use the guise of charity to carry out undesirable, harmful and criminal activities in the country.
Minister Ziyambi said when the Bill was first introduced, Government had received communication from the Financial Action Taskforce, which is the world’s police against money laundering, that some charitable trusts are being used as a means of channelling funds to fund terrorism and other criminal activities, or to launder the proceeds of criminal activities by buying properties in Zimbabwe and other countries.
He said one of the essential elements in the PVO Amendment Bill is to criminalise those organisations that fund political parties and candidates, thus deviating from their core mandate.
Minister Ziyambi said the Bill was a necessary measure to improve the administration, accountability and transparency of charities in the country.
The Government, said Minister Ziyambi, had noticed that some so-called charities had bypassed the PVO Act by forming “trusts” sanctioned by the Registrar of Deeds, Companies and Intellectual Property.
Online Reporter