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Fresh moves to check NGOs
The need for fresh legislation to monitor the activities of foreign Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) was discussed this week at the highest levels of Government following a spate of reports that several of them were taking advantage of the post-tsunami relief and rehabilitation operations now in progress.

At a meeting held on Friday under the chair of President Chandrika Kumaratunga, ministers and senior officials discussed ways and means to ensure that genuine NGOs were identified and separated from the several mushroom NGOs that have sprung up after the tsunami disaster.

Among the proposals discussed was the need to have NGOs operating in Sri Lanka register themselves, give details of their funding, and the specific projects they are engaged in.

Despite existing laws requiring NGOs to register with the Ministry of Social Welfare, or if they operate as companies, under the Companies Act, the Centre for National Operations set up by President Kumaratunga after the tsunami disaster permits organisations to register on-line with it.

The fresh move to keep tabs on these NGOs comes in the wake of strong criticism from, among others, the JVP and the JHU that foreign aid agencies were engaging in 'anti-national' activities.

The JHU in particular has raised issue of foreign religious NGOs engaging in religious activities in the disaster-stricken areas. At an inter-party meeting held recently, JVP's Propaganda Secretary Wimal Weerawansa raised the issue of the helicopter spare-parts, body armour and medicines such as anaesthetics that were brought in to the country as humanitarian assistance.

JVP leader Somawansa Amarasinghe told a party rally in Polonnaruwa recently seeing off some 2,000 cadres to do relief work in the Ampara and Batticaloa districts, that several NGOs were acting post-tsunami against the national interest, and that the UPFA government was not doing anything about it.

He cited the cases of the US Peace Corps and the Norwegian Redd Barna and said that there were some NGOs who were having their own agendas under the guise of humanitarian assistance.

Customs officials yesterday told The Sunday Times that during the past month, NGOs had brought in as many as 80 Intercooler, Land Cruisers and Prado vehicles which are classified by them as "luxury vehicles". Thirty more vehicles were awaiting clearance, the official said.

These vehicles have been brought 'duty free' following a Government directive. The permits are issued by the Ministry of Social Welfare. Law and Order Ministry Secretary Tilak Ranavirajah confirmed that the conduct of some of the NGOs was a matter for concern for the Government.

There was also concern at the highest levels of Government on the need to keep tabs on foreign funds that were being collected through web-sites, and the need to ascertain whether these were genuine organisations.

Customs officials said they were also pressed for staff to check on the loads of material coming into the country as humanitarian assistance."We usually inspect about 100 crates a day, but now this has risen to as much as 1,000 crates a day," a Customs official said.

The Sunday Times learns that Customs have been given the green light to purchase an expensive scanner machine that will allow huge crates to be scanned without the need to do physical checks.

Social Services Ministry Secretary Sita Rajapakse said that soon after the tsunami the Treasury sent a circular to clear all relief goods on duty free basis.

"Once this news got out, problems started. All kinds of unnecessary things also started coming in the guise of relief aid. For example, mobile phones and lap tops. So I spoke to the Essential Services Commissioner General and decided to inspect items to make sure they are genuine tsunami relief," she said.

Ms. Rajapakse said the Social Services Ministry had stopped registering any new NGO since the tsunami but NGOs had been registering with other institutions, such as provincial councils and line ministries.

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