KARACHI: A recent campaign in Sindh has led to a disclosure that nearly 70 per cent of the registered non-governmental organisations (NGOs) do not share their financial records, including their sources of funding, audit reports and activities with authorities as required under the law, leading to the cancellation of registration of more than 7,000 NGOs after multiple warnings, officials and sources said.

The move, they said, was part of the government campaign to streamline the data of NGOs across the province — a task that had not been carried out in decades — and in the process it had found out that more than 10,000 these organisations were registered with the regulatory body with most of them enjoying no checks.

Even in some cases the addresses of NGOs’ offices, details of their office-bearers and area of their interest were not found in the record, they said.

“There are a total of 10,500 registered NGOs in Sindh,” Sindh Social Welfare Secretary Muhammad Nawaz Shaikh told Dawn. “We took an initiative and decided to streamline their data, tighten the checks, which are required under the Registration and Control Ordinance, 1961 and monitor their performances or contributions.

10,500 non-governmental organisations are registered in the province

“In the process, we found that there are over 8,000 NGOS which do not share any data, financial records or details of their activities with the regulatory body,” he said.

The situation, he said, prompted action from the government and it made multiple announcements and sent those NGOs several reminders to meet the required formalities but, in most cases, in vain.

Finally, he said, the social welfare department, being the regulatory body, had recently cancelled registration of 7,193 NGOs across Sindh.

As mentioned by the secretary, a majority of the NGOS failed to meet the legal requirements which suggested serious checks on their financial records and activities.

A guideline issued by the social welfare department for the registration of such an organisation stated that audit of financial records and submission of an annual report was a must under the 1961 law.

“An income and expenditure account, which shall be compiled at the case of each financial years and shall be audited by a chartered accountant or auditor or auditors approved by the registration authority and shall be submitted to the said authority within six months of the close of the financial year,” reads Section 9 (C) of the guideline.

Section 10 (2) of the guideline says: “[A] copy of the annual report shall be submitted to the registration authority immediately on its publication.”

Although the Sindh government’s move is largely seen as a good initiative for streamlining the data of the NGOs and to regulate their operations properly, experts question the role of the regulatory body which has been ineffective for years in keeping a check on registered organisations in the name of social development.

“We recognise that there is a large number of NGOs doing a wonderful job and making huge contributions in different areas,” said Anis Haroon, a well-known social development campaigner, rights activist and at present a member of the National Commission for Human Rights. “The situation right now is because of ineffective regulatory measures. The authorities should be proactive and should take regular actions against the organisations not meeting the requirement instead of doing it after years or decades.”

Due to ineffective performance of the regulatory body, she said, “fake NGOs” or those made for vested interests also tarnished the image of the organisations genuinely contributing to society and for human development. There was still a gap, which could be filled by good NGOs mainly in education and health sectors of Sindh, she said Haroon.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2019