EVEN AS the Centre is working on a mechanism to weed out fraud from the voluntary sector, the list of erring NGOs in the State capital seems to be growing by the day.
Their number was 11 when the administration first turned the heat on them on April 16. Ever since, eight more such fraudulent organisations have been added to the ‘blacklist’, thanks to the renewed effort by the administration to identify the ‘black sheep’ from among a total of 108 in the city whose list was provided to it by the Union Home Ministry.
According to Additional District Magistrate (Executive) NP Singh, the administrative scrutiny for the end-utilisation of funds/foreign contributions received by these bodies during 2002-03 is far from over. Fresh conditions under the Foreign Contributions (Regulation) Act now stipulate that the organisations receiving funds from foreign agencies should get an affidavit from the district administrator, explaining the nature of their activities.
“The results have been surprising,” said Singh. A team comprising the city magistrate and the additional city magistrate was put on the job to verify the credential/antecedents of some of these randomly selected NGOs.
{{/usCountry}}“The results have been surprising,” said Singh. A team comprising the city magistrate and the additional city magistrate was put on the job to verify the credential/antecedents of some of these randomly selected NGOs.
{{/usCountry}}“The report submitted by them indicates that at least eight such organisations do not exist at the address given by them. Then, there are those that have their offices but have so far refused to comply with our notices to provide duly audited balance sheets of their accounts for the period mentioned,” he pointed out.
Some of these high-sounding self-help groups that exist merely on paper include Depressed People Improvement Association, 205-A, second floor, Prince Complex in Hazratganj, Society of the Believers (sic) 194, Om Nagar, Alambagh and Manav Vigyan Anusandhan Sansthan, 344-Mohalla Gulzar Nagar, Aishbagh.
Likewise, other untraceable organisations claiming to be working in the social sector, were Social Work Society, Rae Bareli Road near Ambedkar University, Lucknow Fancy Training Institute, Faridi Nagar, Samaj Sewa Evam Shikshan Sansthan, LDA Colony, Kanpur Road, Alambagh and Adarsh Gram Sewa Samiti Munshi Kheda in Transport Nagar.
According to Singh, while a request to blacklist the non-existent NGOs was being sent to the Centre, action against those who had refused to furnish relevant documents, would be recommended after giving them one more opportunity to do so. “As for those who had provided the details, we would be cross-checking the information to ensure that the funds had indeed been spent under the heads/services as was being claimed by them,” he added.