NGO Consultant

NGO Consultant
Odisha NGO Consultancy Services

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

NGOs need to declare funds, there's nothing wrong in that

The Centre’s move to cancel the licenses of over 9,000 NGOs has come in for controversy.

What has made headlines is the government’s decision to suspend the license of Greenpeace and block its foreign funds.

Another decision that has caused a lot of debate has been the Centre’s move to place the Ford Foundation on its watchlist.

Congress leaders have called the moves “fascist” and said the government is harming the interests of the poor.

It’s time for a little perspective. The government placed only those NGOs on notice that have violated FCRA – Foreign Contributions Regulations Act. The act says organisations receiving foreign funds have to detail the amount of funds they have received and to what purpose they were used at the end of each year.

Clearly, the government is asking these NGOs to declare their sources of income. Is there anything wrong in that?

No. If they were corporate houses, we would be attacking the Centre for not carrying out an audit. So why these double standards? But unfortunately, instead of understanding India’s concerns, the NGOs, especially Greenpeace, are claiming they are being ‘victimised.’

The Congress too has jumped into the fray on the NGOs side. This is hypocrisy. It was in 2012 the UPA commissioned an IB report against some NGOs who it believed were fermenting tensions against the Kudankulam project in Tamil Nadu.

The report found that eight out of 11 donors to the Tamil NGOs were funded by European-based donors. Why? We need to know. So let us be clear here. The government is not saying all foreign donors have nefarious designs and it is not saying NGOs should not receive foreign funds. All it is asking is that the funds be declared.

If Greenpeace etc. have a problem, they must be told to follow the law. Otherwise, they can pack their bags and leave. India can manage quite well without them.

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-3059579/QUICK-EDIT-NGOs-need-declare-funds-s-wrong-that.html