Who will bell the NGO cats?

by Pearl Thevanayagam

(March17, London,Sri Lanka Guardian) NGOs (non governmental organisations) or non profit making organisations fill the gap when democratic governments fail to deliver. But the proliferation of these NGOs also point to a form of dictatorship in the absence of accountability to their own countries’ leadership since they are largely funded by foreign countries and its benevolent donors.

Here in the UK, many such non-profit making organisations are backed and funded b y the government. Cases in point are the Refugee Council, NCADC ( National Coalition for the Anti-deportation Campaign), Oxfam, Amnesty International, Employability Forum, Refugee Action and many more charities whose causes range from gay and lesbian rights, animal protection, child abuse and domestic violence among others with millions pumped into by the Home Office and the European Union. There is virtually a rat race for the annual confab which invites proposals to come up with ideas to start a charity.

The European Union Social Fund allocates millions to help charities to get the unemployed find jobs. Those who run these charities consist of yuppies who can barely comprehend IT and who come up with skills such as CV presentation, interview techniques and computer search engines.

Their strength is they present incredible charity proposals running into reams of pages.

Refugee Council for example hardly has any refugees in their paid staff. Rather asylum-seekers and refugees are inducted as volunteers while British citizens hold the high paying jobs there for the same amount of work done by refugees and asylum seekers.

NGOs are the booming cottage industries and their employees earn far better pay than in any other areas of employment. They could be classified as alternative forms of government in that they consist of board of trustees, book-keepers, accountants, directors and line managers down to photo-copiers and case workers. International NGOs have their tentacles far and wide across the globe and they enjoy unlimited powers and funds from donor countries and individual philanthropists.

Unlike in the UK, Sri Lanka does not have a Charity Commission to scrutinise the checks and balances of NGOs and hence the director or president of an NGO in Sri Lanka has an almost sweeping power over decisions made.

Directors of NGOs hold on to their position and elections are but ignored and the founding director holds onto his position till kingdom come.

Prof. Yunus of Bangladesh’s Grameen Bank started lending money to dirt-poor women to be self-sufficient without collateral. Now he is under scrutiny over the mishandling of funds despite his winning the Nobel Prize. This is a fine example of absolute power corrupting absolutely despite his good intentions at the start.

President Premadasa was the brain behind setting Presidential Commission inquiring into NGOs in 1991 and many charities including churches and Sarvodaya, precursor to National Peace Council and Eye Donation Society were found to be wanting in accountability. Unfortunately after his assassination no leader had bothered to re-invigorate the commission and bring corrupt NGOs to book.

For instance the anti narcotics campaign is run by Express Newspapers director Kumar Nadesan from Kynsey Road. This is a hugely profit making venture for its directors. To date not a single drug addict has reformed and according to Kumar Nadesan drug addicts are addicts for life and given the opportunity they will choose drugs over family and friends. So why waste money on educating them? Rather they should follow the Swedish way and allow them safe drug practice rather than inject themselves with harmful needles which could cause Aids and other life-threatening diseases.

Kynsey Road is a mushrooming NGO conclave. It also houses ICES (International Centre for Ethnic Studies launched by the late Neelan Thiruchelvam and it attracts US, German and other foreign funding for a few with Masters or PhDs is anthropology, sociology or scatology.

For nigh on three decades Sri Lanka has been beset with insurgency and separatism. NGOs found a comfortable niche in conflict resolution, peace-building, trauma counselling and child soldiers the causes of which are dear to the hearts of Western donors.

NGOs should be accountable and transparent not only to their donors but to the government and there is an urgent need to monitor their activities. Post-war, many Sri Lankans are engaged in procuring funds to rehabilitate the North and East. The government should work hand in hand with NGOs and not let them run free with funds meant for the needy.

If the media is pointing fingers at corrupt politicians whose every move is dissected and analysed, NGOs are hiding behind the mask of charity and benevolence and their activities largely ignored by the public.

Who will bell the NGO cats?