| Today.Az » Politics » U.S. State Department to check issue on NDI office in Azerbaijan 02 April 2013 [10:50] - Today.Az
 
 
 
   The U.S. State Department will check into the issue regarding 
activity of the National Democratic Institute (NDI) office in 
Azerbaijan, U.S. State Department Spokesperson Victoria Nuland said at a
 traditional press briefing. "I don't have any information on that particular assertion by the 
government. I don't know whether it happened in the last couple of days.
 We'll check into it. But as you know, all of our U.S.-funded democracy 
NGOs operate within extremely tight guidelines. They don't fund any 
particular party or any particular ideological approach," she said. Nuland said these institutes finance the process of democratic 
elections and party building in an evenhanded manner across the 
political spectrum. Azerbaijani Prosecutor General Zakir Garalov has appealed to the U.S.
 ambassador in the country, Richard Morningstar, in connection with the 
activity of the representative office of the National Democratic 
Institute (NDI) in Azerbaijan, a source in the Foreign Ministry said on 
Friday. According to the appeal, articles published in the press in 
connection with deficiencies in the representative office's activity 
caused a great public outcry. As a result of the investigation conducted by prosecution bodies, it 
was revealed that the Azerbaijani laws on 'Non-governmental 
organisations (public associations and foundations)', 'State 
Registration of Legal Entities and State Register' and 'Grants' were 
violated while the NDI representative office was operating in 
Azerbaijan. Moreover the NDI violated the conditions of the 'Rules about the 
form, content and order of submitting the annual financial report of 
non-governmental organisations', approved by the decision of the 
Azerbaijani Cabinet of Ministers dated December 25, 2009. According to the appeal, NDI offices and regional information centres
 which were not registered in an appropriate manner and not accredited 
in Baku, Ganja, Tovuz, Shirvan, Yevlakh, Sheki, Khachmaz and Jalilabad 
issued grants until July 23, 2012 and have not submitted annual 
financial reports to the relevant executive bodies after the reporting 
period was over. It was also found out that head of the representative office Alex 
Grigoriev took $1.007 million in cash from an account opened at the 
International Bank of Azerbaijan, without providing information on the 
purpose of its use from March 2, 2010 to December 13, 2012. /Trend/
 
 
 
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