The president of the National Assembly, the Sandinista Gustavo Porras, announced that —once the “ordering process” of the non-governmental organizations has concluded, which has left 267 NGOs canceled since 2018— They will continue with the “ordering” of financial and microfinance institutions that are currently registered as non-profit organizations before the Ministry of the Interior (Migob).
“There are more than three dozen organizations that are dedicated to financing aspects, to giving loans, and legally they were born as non-profit organizations. Clearly they have a lucrative activity and based on that lucrative activity they report all their balances to the Siboif (Superintendence of Banks and other Financial Institutions) and to the Conami (National Microfinance Commission),” said the legislator during an interview broadcast by the Parliamentary Channel.
According to what was stated by Deputy Porras, the “ordering” of financial and microfinance companies will be through a law similar to the Special Law for the Change of Regime of Legal Entities, which was approved weeks ago and through which five social clubs that were registered as non-profit organizations were transferred to the mercantile regime.
All these finance companies and microfinance companies “fulfill their duties before the regulatory bodies of financial activity, but they do not do so before the Ministry of the Interior,” Porras warned. “So, we are not going to act on them —because by not complying with the Government we should cancel the legal status— but we are not blind nor are we irresponsible”, he continued.
“Everything will continue to work the same,” according to Porras
According to the legislator, a bill on the matter is already being worked on in the National Assembly and when the document is ready, it will be consulted with the regulatory bodies of the financial system and with the partners of the financial and microfinance institutions that will be affected ” so that they are calm”.
“They are going to continue operating —even— they continue to be supervised, regulated, governed by Conami and Siboif. What cannot be is that they have a legal personality of non-profit organizationsbecause they are not, and that blanket can lead to confusion and, in some cases, to them not complying with their tax obligations,” Porras commented.
In practice “everything has to continue to function the same,” said the legislator. Therefore, the first step was the identification of the organizations that will be changed to the financial regime and now it is intended to continue with interviews with the partners.
“We are going to interview them from Conami and Siboif, and we are going to advance until we see them one by one. These organizations have —even— refinancing from abroad and if we take action there may be a concern, we do not want that and that is why we want to impose tranquility regarding the operation of these organizations”, added Porras.
For Deputy Porras, the change that is intended to be made to financial and microfinance institutions “does not have to have” any impact on credits, since all these organizations “have been adhering to the regulations of financial institutions” in the country.
The crusade against non-profit organizations
In the last four years, the Daniel Ortega regime has annulled 267 civil society organizations, 193 so far in 2022 alone. The Migob accused all of them of alleged non-compliance with the Law against Money Laundering, Financing of Terrorism and the Financing of the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction and its regulations, the Law for the Regulation of Foreign Agents and recently with the General Law for the Regulation and Control of Non-Profit Organizations, which entered into force on May 6.
According to Deputy Porras, there are currently about 7,000 non-profit organizations registered with Migob, of which “there are a large number, 6,000 or so, that are in breach of their legal obligations.”
“What we are doing is moving forward, calling for them to comply and those who do not appear, or who do not comply, are canceled,” said Porras.
