How billions spent is million-dollar question
KATHMANDU:
More than 38,000 NGOs and nearly 200 INGOs are operating in Nepal, with their annual budget worth billions of rupees, but the million-dollar question is: Where does the money go?
While the number of I/NGOs is growing exponentially, the country has failed to enforce effective monitoring mechanism, as a result of which billions of rupees go unaccounted for. No one knows how the money is being
spent — not even the Social Welfare Council, which is responsible for the promotion, facilitation, coordination, monitoring and evaluation of such organisations.
Rabindra Kumar, Member Secretary at the SWC, concedes that the council “has failed to supervise the activities of thousands of NGOs and their supporting international organisations’’. “They do not even abide by the SWC regulations.”
There are 38,963 NGOs registered with the SWC. Although there is no centralised database, Kumar estimates that there could be 10,000 to 12,000 more operating at different levels without getting SWC affiliation.
For a country with 26.5 million population, the figures mean there is one NGO for every 530 people. A population comparison with the total strength of Nepal Police (67,300) gives one cop for every 400 people!
According to the SWC, more than 60 per cent of NGOs have been registered to work in the field of community and rural development; 14 per cent for youths, eight per cent for women and 4.5 per cent in the field of environment and climate change. The rest are working in the field of HIV/AIDS, drug abuse, child welfare, moral development and people with disabilities.
More than 50 per cent NGOs are based in the Kathmandu Valley. Interestingly, almost each and every house in Karnali zone has got an office of a certain NGO, said Kumar.
Has there been any positive impact then?
“We are yet to see a significant impact on the lifestyle of the target population,” Kumar says.
For the fiscal year 2013/14, SWC data shows that 188 INGOs of at least 25 countries allocated 9.91 billion rupees for different NGO-run multi-year projects worth 41.403 billion rupees. Nineteen INGO projects have signed general agreements worth Rs 693.31 million with the SWC to run more projects through NGOs in coming years. “This is the figure which has been made available to the SWC,” Kumar says. “Billions of rupees earmarked for NGOs go unaccounted for. There is a huge accountability deficit among I/NGOs and there is violation of the provisions of Association Registration Act and Social Welfare Act.”
Kumar accuses top politicians and bureaucrats of not only protecting them but also encouraging them for wrongdoings. “I/NGOs have patronage of top leaders and high-ranking officials.”
“The government does not have a proper mechanism to control the mushrooming NGOs and monitor INGOs supported by bi- and multi-lateral donors,” says Kumar Ram Prasad Bhattarai, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare, says corruption and irregularities in the I/NGO sector is a serious issue. “Lack of inter-ministry coordination, I/NGOs’ influence at all levels, involvement of powerful personalities in the NGO sector and lack of mainstreaming the donors’ funding are some of the factors behind the irregularities,” he explains.
According to a 2013 report of Transparency International, corruption level stands at 20 per cent in NGOs. Political parties were said to be the most corrupt with irregularity level hitting 70 per cent. TI Nepal General Secretary Bharat Bandhu Thapa, also a former government secretary, says corruption has brought political parties and NGOs together. “Direct involvement of party leaders in NGO activities is a major challenge to curb corruption,” he says.
“Government authorities do not have details of finances of the I/NGOs operating in the country due to lack of proper monitoring mechanism,” Sharmila Karki, President of the NGO Federation of Nepal, which has only 5,370 members, told THT, stressing on the need of policy reforms to track NGO activities.
Source: THT
