[Assam] NGO for profit or no profit?
Ram Sarangapani
assamrs at gmail.com
Mon Mar 13 22:05:48 PST 2006
Very interesting. Is there a way to cross-check an NGO - I mean to find out
if they are genuine.
Also, those from the 'banned list' should also be criminally prosecuted.
--Ram
On 3/13/06, Dilip/Dil Deka <dilipdeka at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> NGO is a profession to many in India. In December 2005, I met a few in
> Assam who are making a good living with money from NGOs. I didn't have the
> heart to tell them that I could see through it all.
> Dilip
>
> <http://www.outlookindia.com/> Print This Page
> Magazine| Mar 20, 2006
>
> Exclusive: NGOs
>
> *We Serve Fudge *
>
> *Rs 5,100 crore in foreign funds. The home ministry clamps down on errant
> NGOs.*
>
> BHAVNA VIJ-AURORA They are ostensibly non-profit organisations, but with
> working capital running into thousands of crores. Blessed with tax
> exemptions, their accounts rarely come up for scrutiny. Of course, it would
> be a misrepresentation to paint all non-governmental organisations (NGOs)
> with the same tainted brush. But among the sincere and committed ones are
> several organisations getting foreign funds and donations which they divert
> for their own ends. Among these are NGOs which claim they are active in
> cultural, educational and religious activities but have not accounted for
> monies received from abroad. When the ministry of home affairs recently
> decided to crack down on errant voluntary organisations, it realised that of
> the 32,000 registered ones, only a little over 17,000 had submitted accounts
> to the government. Of the remaining, more than 8,000 organisations have not
> shown their balance books for the past three years. Examining the records of
> the year 2003-04 (subsequent information is being collated), it found that
> over Rs 5,100 crore had come by way of foreign funding. However, what was
> of concern was that probably an equal amount, if not more, was going
> unreported. In an effort to rein in the defaulting NGOs and institutions,
> the government has now banned 8,673 of them, countrywide, from accepting any
> more foreign donations without prior permission. In an unprecedented move,
> they were also put on a 'Prior Permission list'. Which means their names
> will be cleared only if they submitted accounts. Among those on the list
> include well-known organisations and institutions like the Institute for
> Conflict Management (run by ex-supercop K.P.S. Gill), the Gandhi Peace
> Foundation, Delhi University, Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts
> (IGNCA), Times of India Relief Fund, Zee Telefilm Relief Fund, Indian
> Council for Agriculture Research, Jamia Millia Islamia, the rss-affiliated
> Vanvasi Trust, Khoj and Sanchetana. Also on the list are hundreds of
> concerns working in the HIV/AIDS sector. Ajay Sahni, of the Institute for
> Conflict Management, says it was just an administrative lapse. "Ours is a
> small organisation and anyway the foreign contributions we get are
> negligible," he says. A spokesperson for the Times Group claimed it had not
> received any foreign funds in the past three years. As for Khoj and
> Sanchetana, though they have not submitted accounts, records of the Ford
> Foundation for April-September '05 showed it had paid $2,250 to Khoj and
> $5,00,000 to Sanchetana. Joint secretary D.S. Mishra, dealing with foreign
> contributions, told *Outlook* that all accounts would be scrutinised
> before any clearance is given. "Once they submit records, we will go through
> them very carefully and then decide if they should be taken off from the
> list," he says. Meanwhile, 35 NGOs have been banned forever from taking
> foreign funds or donations. "They have been prohibited for various reasons,
> ranging from diversion of funds for anti-national activities, misuse for
> personal gain or for purposes other than stated in their charter," points
> out Mishra. This category includes several outfits which claim to be working
> in the religious and social sectors. Predictably, they span the four corners
> of the country. The Saraswati Charitable Trust in Delhi figures in this
> list with a total ban. The trust was involved in translation, printing and
> distribution of Srila Prabhupada's books, and sources say they were found to
> be misusing funds. When *Outlook* tried to contact the trust, at the
> Greater Kailash-II address given to the home ministry, it turned out to be
> false. The phone number given to the ministry was also fake. In a third list
> are NGOs banned till they set their accounts in order. It has 30 names.
> "These organisations will have to get government permission before accepting
> any more donations.Their accounts were not above board," an official
> explained. Regulated by the Foreign Contributions Regulatory Act (FCRA) of
> 1976, manys NGOs had been getting away without maintaining proper records
> for long. For the home ministry, FCRA was more of a national security
> legislation, but it was weak on issues like tracking the source and
> utilisation of foreign donations. It has been trying to replace the FCRA
> with an act with more teeth—the Foreign Contributions (Management and
> Control) Bill, 2005. The earlier NDA regime had started the process, but
> now the UPA has a group of ministers (GoM) to study the FCRA and suggest
> changes to it. Headed by home minister Shivraj Patil, its other members are
> finance minister P. Chidambaram, law minister H.R. Bhardwaj, minister for
> science Kapil Sibal and minister for overseas Indian affairs Vyalar Ravi.
> Defence minister Pranab Mukherjee has said the new bill would aim to check
> "activities undertaken by unscrupulous elements in the garb of overt welfare
> schemes and projects". The government, he said, was keen to ensure that
> associations engaged in anti-national and illegal activities are taken out.
> But, at the same time, there would be no hindrance to genuine NGOs engaged
> in developmental and welfare work. The GoM, which has already had two
> meetings, went through the FCRA and found the law did not even have
> provision to derecognise an organisation. It could only debar a violating
> organisation from receiving foreign funds. The GoM wants a provision to
> de-recognise an organisation and bar it from functioning altogether.
> Moreover, it discussed issues like an institution having only one bank
> account—declared to the government—to receive foreign donations. It could be
> allowed more accounts only to disburse the amount for various projects. The
> aim of the new law will be to facilitate the inflow of foreign contributions
> for genuine activities without compromising concerns over national security.
> Of the reported Rs 5,100 crore coming into the country, Delhi received the
> maximum of Rs 857 crore, followed by Tamil Nadu with Rs 800 crore and Andhra
> Pradesh with Rs 684 crore. Among organisations, Andhra's Rural Development
> Trust was the highest recipient with Rs 126 crore. While foreign funding
> is crucial for NGOs as well as educational institutions, the government is
> clear it wants a proper auditing mechanism. And it has stuck to its guns
> that it'll spare none. Perhaps the reason why IIT Delhi and the IGNCA figure
> in the list of organisations banned from accepting foreign donations without
> first getting their books in order.
>
>
> magazine | Mar 20, 2006
> *Blacklisted NGOs/ Institutions*
>
> **
>
> As many as 8,673 NGOs and institutions nationwide are on the government
> watchlist for receiving foreign funding and not accounting for it or
> misusing it. Named below are some of them: *Banned forever from accepting
> foreign funding*
>
> - Saraswati Charitable Trust, New Delhi
> - Harayanvi Organisation for Progress and Ecology, Sonepat, Haryana
> - Islamiya College, Calicut, Kerala
> - Public Relief Trust, Srinagar
> - J&K Muslim Conference, Srinagar
> - Children's Development Communities India, Calcutta
> - Vikas Parishad, Koraput, Orissa
> - Association Madras Church of Christ, Chennai
> - Anjumane Hussamia Educational Association, Hyderabad
> - Jamai Atul Falah, Azamgarh, UP
>
> *Prohibited from receiving foreign donations for not submitting accounts
> for more than 3 years *
>
> - Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts, Delhi
> - Institute for Conflict Management, Delhi
> - Times of India Relief Fund, Delhi
> - Self Employed Women's Association, Bihar
> - Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi
> - Cheshire Homes, Andhra Pradesh
> - Vivekanand Mission, West Bengal
> - Auroville Resource Trust, Tamil Nadu
> - Jagriti, Maharashtra
> - Citizens Action Group, Karnataka
>
> Source: Union home ministry
>
>
> magazine | Mar 20, 2006
> *Flush With Foreign Funds*
>
> **
>
>
> - World Vision of India, Tamil Nadu, Rs 103 crore
> - Foster Parents Plan International, Delhi, Rs 57 crore
> - Shri Sathya Sai Central Trust, Andhra Pradesh, Rs 50 crore
> - Action Aid, Karnataka, Rs 45 crore
> - Mata Amritanandmayi Mission, Kerala, Rs 40 crore
> - SOS Children's Village of India, Delhi Rs 39 crore
> - Maharishi Ved Vigyan Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Delhi, Rs 34 crore
>
>
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