“The government has appointed a committee to probe INGO/NGO spending in this country. A large number of humanitarian outfits had raised millions of US dollars by marketing Sri Lanka’s war and operated in the conflict zone for years. But, there is no tangible proof that they expended their funds properly and people stood to gain from them” asserts The Island Editorial on Monday (Feb 23).
[ad#200×200] “Raising funds for a worthy cause is a noble deed. Immediate relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction will cost Sri Lanka an arm and a leg. But, it is imperative that donors be apprised of the true situation here and the funds they contribute properly disbursed. The plethora of INGOs and NGOs given to corruption and profligacy must be kept at bay” the editorial further stated questioning the transparency of many INGO/NGOs in the victim industry.
More and more civilians are finding their way into the welfare centres in the Vanni and unprecedented relief operations are underway to ameliorate their suffering and help them rebuild their lives. A number of welfare villages are coming up in the North for their benefit. Everybody is happy about these measures except the captains of the Victim Industry and their cronies who have been denied an opportunity to make a fast buck by marketing the displaced people’s plight. The government has rightly decided ‘not to permit the use of IDPs as exhibits’.
Bernard Hours in an excellent article, NGOs and the Victim Industry in Le Monde Diplomatique last November pointed out that ‘the ideology behind humanitarian aid depends on three principles. There must be universal human rights – a worthy premise, but problematic. You create victims whom you can save. Then you assert the right to have access to these victims’. A ruse they use to make their donors loosen purse strings is to blow a humanitarian situation out of proportion. In the late July, 2008, the World Food Programme (WFP) shocked the world by issuing a statement from Yokohama that soaring food prices had caused 30 per cent of Sri Lankans to go without food for days. The timing of that statement was of crucial import. The global media attention was on Sri Lanka, which was hosting a SAARC summit and the WFO message had done several trips round the globe before it was retracted with an apology to Sri Lanka. The TRO, it may be recalled, duped the international community for years on end into parting with millions of US$, pounds sterling, Euros etc, by claiming that those funds would be utilised for the rehabilitation of the war and tsunami displaced. But, they were used to finance the LTTE’s war. And TRO stands unmasked today.
It is reported that the UN has undertaken to raise US$ 155.5 mn for the Sri Lankan IDPs. Sri Lanka needs foreign assistance but how is the UN going to disburse these funds? Will it be through the various INGOs sans accountability?
The government has appointed a committee to probe INGO/NGO spending in this country. A large number of humanitarian outfits had raised millions of US dollars by marketing Sri Lanka’s war and operated in the conflict zone for years. But, there is no tangible proof that they expended their funds properly and people stood to gain from them.
Humanitarian and conflict resolution outfits are notorious for colossal waste, massive overheads and rampant misappropriation. Their bosses draw the same salaries as CEOs in the affluent world. It is also alleged that they paid protection money to the LTTE to operate in the conflict zone, where their donors could not monitor their activities. If the UN were to use these channels for aid disbursement again, funds would certainly go down the gurgler.
Raising funds for a worthy cause is a noble deed. Immediate relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction will cost Sri Lanka an arm and a leg. But, it is imperative that donors be apprised of the true situation here and the funds they contribute properly disbursed. The plethora of INGOs and NGOs given to corruption and profligacy must be kept at bay. Several INGOs which obtained money and concessions for building houses for the tsunami displaced are reported to have played a vanishing trick.
INGOs and NGOs must not be allowed to disport themselves in the exploitation of human tragedy. The government which has undertaken to probe the INGO and NGO spending ought to call for an international audit. And the onus is on the UN to ensure that funds it raises won’t end up in the wrong hands.
Courtesy : The Island