The unprepared disrupt of activities by COVID-19 has significantly affected the operations and legal compliance of both local and international NGOs in Uganda. The Ugandan government through the Office of the Prime Minister has recently suspended operations of about 208 organizations over non-compliance with operational rules. Majority of the suspended NGOs lacked valid memorandums of understanding with the prime minister’s office (refugee aid organizations), possessed expired permits to operate or were according to the OPM running un-authorized projects.

In addition, with the election environment looming, some NGO’s especially those in the civic space are likely to face increasing threats from government agencies under the suspicion and claim that they are conduits to finance activists and opposition politicians to run campaigns. More broadly, there are many onerous requirements that are being introduced by regulatory bodies including The Financial Intelligence Authority, The Immigration department and The Uganda Revenue Authority. Additionally with the push for increased implementation of projects through local NGO’s, there is a need for increased accountability through strong policies, working boards of directors and stronger controls.

This calls for increasing compliance and ensuring that NGO’s are at par with their legal, administrative and compliance requirements. This program implemented by TASLAF Advocates will take NGO’s through a one off compliance process aimed at ensuring that policies, compliance obligations and all filings are in order.

ABOUT TASLAF ADVOCATES

TASLAF Advocates offers specialist legal and tax services focused on supporting social enterprises, NGOs, charitable institutions and philanthropies as they address social issues. We have developed one of the leading specialist not-for-profit advisory practices in the East African region and our knowledge of NGO laws and regulations together with our working relationships with leading government entities (including the National Bureau for NGOs) has helped many organizations register and set up with the relevant authorities in Uganda, restructure,  be compliant, strengthen decision-making, develop more efficient systems, and identify effective solutions to important challenges.

THE PROGRAM

This program seeks to assist and support NGOs, charitable institutions and philanthropies through the effects of COVID-19 and enable legal and regulatory compliance. This program entails carrying out organisational, administrative and audit reviews to enable NGO compliance.  

The overarching objective of the program is to provide legal support and guidance on all compliance, regulatory and administrative processes required by NGO’s operating in Uganda. For NGO’s to qualify as compliant, they must adhere to all requirements and regulations created by the NGO Act.

SCOPE OF SERVICES

The program offers discounted and tailored legal services to enable NGO Compliance. Whilst our definitive services will be informed by an organization needs assessment, our broad services will hinge on remedying the standard administrative and legal compliance challenges faced by the NGO’s.

OUR APPROACH

The goal of this program is to support NGOs to ensure regulatory compliance. Accordingly, the program will entail three phases.

NGOs will sign up/register on our website to ensure that our services are properly targeted and achieve impact.

Once successfully registered, we’ll conduct a needs assessment and a high-level diagnostic of NGO administrative and legal compliance challenges to determine the specific areas for legal support and advisory. This will permit us to design and implement an appropriate scope of work.

WHO QUALIFIES FOR THIS PROGRAM?

 All nonprofits who would like to set/review their compliance systems and develop administrative policies for the organization. This includes NGO’s that are not yet registered in Uganda.

• Local NGOs
• Foreign NGOs
• International NGOs
• Regional NGOs
• Charities

WHAT ARE THE FEES FOR THE PROGRAM?

This program offers a discounted fee of USD 500 (United States Dollars five hundred) for all administrative and legal compliance review.