Promoting transparency: Policy to keep check on NGOs on anvil

The draft to be presented in the next federal cabinet meeting.

ISLAMABAD:

A new regulatory policy to ensure a strict check on all national and international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) operating within the country is being drafted by the Economic Affairs Division (EAD). The policy is expected to be presented before the federal cabinet in its next meeting, a senior official of EAD said on Sunday.

Under the new policy, it will be mandatory for every NGO to provide the government with details of their ongoing as well as completed activities, accounts and budgets, funding sources and audit reports, said the official. He said that all international NGOs will provide their details to the EAD, whereas the national NGOs will be answerable to their District Coordination Officers concerned.

The official said the steps are being taken to ensure transparency in the operations of NGOs, adding that all stakeholders, including the ministries of finance, law and foreign affairs, have been taken on board to make the policy comprehensive.

“It is a fact that some of the NGOs do not work as per their mandate and funds are misused or embezzled,” said the EAD official. He said it is after receiving numerous reports of corruption, misuse of funds and deviations from set operating procedures in NGOs that the new regulatory policy is being prepared.

Meanwhile, head of some NGOs alleged that the new policy will provide more opportunities to bureaucrats to create unnecessary hurdles in their activities and then ask for ‘favours’.

A senior officer of Save the Children, a UK-based NGO, said he welcomes transparency; however, that will not be possible if the bureaucracy is involved in the affairs of NGOs. The official said that the new regulation will also affect the performances of NGOs, since most are not well-versed on reporting mechanisms of the development sector.

When enquired, the EAD official did not rule out the possibility of corruption by bureaucrats who involve themselves in the affairs of the NGOs. However, he assured the new policy will be in the public’s best interest.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 27^th, 2012.