The government office in charge of regulating civil society organizations (CSOs) has announced its decision to revoke no less than 1,718 licenses for failure to meet new criteria and guidelines for registration.
The Civil Society Organizations Authority has issued a statement and list of 1,514 CSOs that have had their licenses revoked on July 8, 2024. Heads of the Authority decided to move ahead with the mass revocation during its 17th regular meeting.
Girma Mekonnen, head of public relations and communications at the Authority, told The Reporter that these organizations were losing their licenses on account of failing to re-register with the Authority before the deadline.
CSOs are required to renew their licenses every year, a process which involves the submission of an annual audit report to the Authority. The audit report must also be approved by the organization’s general assembly prior to submission.
According to Girma, the 1,514 failed to present their annual audit report to the Authority, despite deadline extensions and repeated calls from the Authority to do so, going as far back as 2021. The decision follows changes to the decree governing CSOs, which was amended to strengthen compliance.
Another 204 CSOs have seen their licenses revoked as a result of failing to register and renew their permits despite having presented their audit reports.
Heads of the Authority say they consulted the Council of Civil Society Organizations, a lobby group, before making its decision.
A CSO manager who spoke to The Reporter anonymously said most of these organizations are formed by a group of people and lack the organizational structure that would enable them to conduct annual audits and organize general assemblies.
Terefe Degeti, director of the CSO Council, sees the decision to revoke the licenses of more than 1,700 organizations as a regrettable but justifiable action.
“All CSOs must present annual performance reports to the regulatory authority as per the CSO proclamation. But these organizations did not, despite several deadline extensions from the Authority. It finally decided to revoke the licenses after waiting a long time. It should not have happened but we cannot negate the proclamation. We, the management of the Council, were present when the Authority made the revocation decision. We agreed with the decision. Most likely the revoked organizations are out of operation due to a lack of resources. Since COVID-19, it has been difficult to mobilize funds for CSOs,” Terefe told The Reporter.
However, Terefe agrees the revocation of such a large number of CSO licenses will create a “huge vacuum in the much needed humanitarian provisions.”
“We are working on the localization of foreign CSOs in order to bridge the vacuum,” he said.
