Fraud Check: Petition seeks audit of NGOs

There is no system in place to supervise the functions, budgets and expenditures of 45,000 NGOs.

KARACHI: Sindh High Court (SHC) has extended the deadline given to federal law officers to respond to a petition seeking audit of the accounts of NGOs operating in the province. The petitioner, United Human Rights Commission representative Rana Faizul Hassan, had submitted before the court that there was no system in place by which the government may supervise the functions, budgets and expenditures of 45,000 NGOs operating in the country. Citing a report, he said that authorities had expressed doubts over the working of 51 NGOs in Khyber-Pakhtunkhuwa, questioning their purpose and sources of funding. He appealed to the court to direct provincial authorities to set up a structure to audit the NGOs’ funding and expenditures. The division bench, headed by Justice Maqbool Baqar, adjourned the hearing till May 25.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 7^th, 2013.