Laws on anvil to regulate community associations

DUBAI,24 February 2011 (KT): The Community Development Authority is coming up with laws to licence and regulate all social clubs, community associations and professional bodies in Dubai by next year.
The authority will also formulate policies and standards pertaining to social service providers including societies, facilities and professionals from all nationalities.

Senior officials of the Community Development Authority (CDA) in Dubai revealed these plans to Khaleej Times after the launch of a six-day outreach programme by the authority to register community associations affiliated to the Indian Community Welfare Committee (ICWC) with the CDA's Social Regulatory and Licensing Department late on Tuesday evening.

"We are working with the Legal Affairs Department on how to regulate and licence social clubs and associations. However, we want to fast-track this approach and develop the community and make it self-sufficient so that associations and societies can develop themselves various programmes to cater to their communities," said Dr Omar Al Muthanna, CEO of the Social Regulatory and Licensing Department.

He said the registration was a pre-requirement of licensing, which will take place once the law is implemented. "It (registration) is the effort of putting up their database for us, making them known to us... As soon as the licensing law comes out, it will be made public...and we will give more details of licensing the associations."

More accountabilityHe said this will make social service providers more accountable and more efficient in how they work among themselves. The official said the CDA would formulate standardised voting procedures for associations to avoid conflicts, if any. "This is great that they have somebody they can go to when they have any disagreement. Sometimes when there is a disagreement [in elections], they dissolve. Why dissolve? We will support (them) to continue in an efficient way. When associations want to deliver a service, we will tell them this is the standard to deliver it and we will not accept anything less than this so that we protect the beneficiaries."

However, he clarified that the licensing procedure was not meant to put stringent regulations. "It is about empowering them. We have invested a lot to develop various programmes for the benefit of the community. We want to provide these programmes to these associations so that they can serve their community members better," he said.

Palani Babu, Manager for Societies and Facilities Licensing at the department, said the licensing law could be in place by the end of this year or early next year.

"The registration will continue as a preliminary procedure for licensing even after the law comes in," he said noting that the CDA would licence newly-formed social service providers based on the real need for their service.

"But, it will be on a case by case basis. If it is too many groups, it is not good actually. We will look into the demographics and see if there is a real need. It could be a state-wise approach or a national-level approach to see how many are actually needed." At the moment, social service providers with a history of at least three years' service in Dubai are being registered. Babu said others would also have to be registered eventually and there would be more outreach programmes for various nationalities in future.

The CDA has so far received 100 applications for registration from social providers, societies, facilities and professionals from different nationalities and 12 social clubs and associations including India Club, Pakistani Association, Jordanian Club, Dubai Little League and a rugby club have already been licenced by the Authority.

Social cohesionEarlier, Khaled Al Kamda, Director-General of the CDA, said that the outreach programme aimed at strengthening relations with community organisations and sharing ideas with them on social development and cohesion.

Representatives of various associations under the ICWC welcomed the local government's initiative saying it would help them to have a proper legal recognition and improve relationships among diverse communities in Dubai.

Sanjay Verma, Consul-General of India, said it was a compliment for the Indian community associations to have been chosen as the first group for the CDA's outreach programme and promised that the associations under the consulate would rise to any occasion in cooperating and working together with the CDA. - sajila@khaleejtimes.com

By : Sajila Saseendran