Editorial
Signboard-only NGOs being de-licensed
A unified authority, oversight mechanism necessary for the sector
THE latest news on the NGO front is that the government has decided to cancel 20,000 inactive Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) out of 55,000 registered under the Social Welfare Ministry.
It is an eye-opener to how unwieldy the sector has become, thanks to the ease with which these could be set up. Most such voluntary organisations are not even properly managed. They commit many irregularities. Little wonder several of them have now fallen into disuse.
We appreciate the Social Welfare Ministry's effort, however belated, to streamline the sector. But one wonders why so many organisations remained registered so far in the first place. The process of phasing them out should have started much earlier.
Problems arise over regulating the NGOs within any definite policy framework as they can be registered by as many as seven authorities, apart from the Department of Social Welfare. The list of authorities includes NGO Affairs Bureau, the Department of Cooperatives, Office of the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms, Micro-credit Regulatory Authority and Departments of Women and Children Affairs and Youth Development.
Naturally, the sheer number of the NGOs and their registering authorities make the task of keeping an effective oversight on them a formidable one. This issue has to be addressed.
Considering the overall picture prevailing in the NGO sector, especially regarding its administration and oversight, the need for urgent action to streamline it cannot be overemphasised. It is important that some semblance of order is established in the sector without any delay.
Reports have it that some organisation passing for NGOs committed fraudulence, while others deviated from their stated aims and objectives.
This is not to detract from the fact that there are several NGOs that have helped improve our social development indicators earning good names for themselves and the nation.
To remove the existing confusion in the sector, there is hardly any alternative to bringing the NGOs under a unified authority. At the same time, an effective oversight body that would conduct auditing on both the financial and performance aspects of the NGOs should be created. This would ensure the accountability and transparency of the NGOs and remove public misgivings about some of them. These reforms should be carried out in view of the very great role that the NGO sector can play in carrying forward the development agenda alongside the government.
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