Govt to monitor NGOs

* Suitable policy to be worked out

* To ensure that people benefit

It is the right and responsibility of the government to monitor how Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) obtain funds and how they are spent, stated President Mahinda Rajapaksa during a meeting with the Editors of the print and electronic media at Temple Trees yesterday.

He said that many millions of rupees come into the country on a monthly and yearly basis and currently there is no mechanism to monitor from where they come from and how these funds are utilized.

The President, citing India as an example, added that almost no other country in the world allows organizations to bring large amounts of money into the country and spend them on projects of their own without any monitoring by the government.

”Therefore, the Government intends to workout a suitable policy to monitor their activities’, President Rajapaksa said. He pointed out that specific guidelines are needed for NGOs to obtain funds through the correct methods and spend in a correct manner.

He emphasized that this is not an anti-NGO policy but a valid mechanism to ensure that the people benefit through such funds.

Joining the discussion, Mass Media and Information Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said that such unmonitored fund inflows could even lead to money laundering, which is now a growing global concern. PRIU