Jhoak Development Foundation has welcomed the Public Accounts Committee's decision ordering the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) to conduct both financial and performance audits of the National Rural Support Programme (NRSP) and Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF).
Terming it a welcome move the National Co-ordinator of the organisation Sajid Mansoor Qaisrani said that a large section of people has been expressing concern over funding, recruitment, purchase and other policies of the Not-For-Profit Organisation/ NGOs set up, sponsored and funded by the Government of Pakistan and demanding a thorough public scrutiny of their performance.
Qaisrani demanded that National Trust for Population Welfare (NATPOW), Devolution Trust for Community Empowerment (DTCE), and other Rural Support Programmes should also be included in the process of public scrutiny. These organisations have been able to attract huge public funds, running into millions of dollars, from the Government of Pakistan, International Financial Institutions and multinational donors mainly because senior serving and retired Government functionaries are either on their Boards or occupying top executive positions, Mansoor Qaisrani added. Though some of these organisations are being run by the provincial governments yet most of them have been registered under Federal Laws and hence are subject to their jurisdiction.
He called upon these organisations that rather than concealing their accounts and programmes, recruitment, retirement and purchase policies and pay scales, etc, they should welcome the move: "If they have committed no wrong they should not be worried. Such audit would rather help clear many misgivings about them from the minds of the public at large."
Qaisrani said there have been allegations of large scale misappropriation of public funds being channelled through NGOs during relief work in the earthquake and flood-affected areas. Many of these allegations might be wrong but it would be appropriate if these organisations get their names cleared through a proper process of public scrutiny.-PR
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