KARACHI: Federal govt stops financing NGOs - Environment-related projects
By Mukhtar Alam
KARACHI, March 23: In view of the reservations made by the Sindh Environment Department, the federal government has stopped financing environment-related projects undertaken by some non-governmental organizations
, it was learnt officially on Saturday.
Urging the federal ministry of environment to streamline the criteria for distribution of funds for short-duration projects, the Sindh Environment and Alternate Energy Department opined that the existing system of allocating funds to the NGOs was "sheer wastage of government funds".
Sources in the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) said that in all nine projects out of 96 proposed by different NGOs were evaluated and short-listed by the SEPA officers for financing by the federal government.
However, sources said that due to some observations submitted by the Sindh Environment Department regarding the projects, the chapter of funds allocation to the NGOs had almost been closed now.
Earlier in August 2003, the federal ministry of environment had invited applications from NGOs for financing the implementation of one-year projects related to environment.
According to the criteria set by the government, an NGO was allowed to submit proposals for a maximum of two projects requiring grant for not more than one million rupees each, falling in one of the core areas of the National Conservation Strategy.
The aspiring NGOs were also required to ensure community participation in the shape of cash, labour and other resources at least equivalent to 40 per cent of the envisaged government's contribution.
The NGOs have been implementing projects under government's arrangements for over eight years. Last year, the federal government on the recommendations of provincial environment authorities had allocated three million rupees to nine different NGOs, out of which two did not turn up to receive their cheques, said a source.
According to the source, letters were sent to all the seven recipients of the funds to furnish their progress after every three months, but no progress had been reported by any of them.
In December last, the provincial environment department pointed out to the federal government that the response through advertisement was mostly received from individuals or paper- organizations that did not even have a proper office, membership or even a letter head.
The letter sent to the federal government stated, "Sponsors are very often influential people who do get the funds allocated with their influence." It added that the adviser to chief minister on environment and alternative energy had taken a serious view of the environment in which such funds were obtained and utilized.
The provincial department was of the view that the proposals, with the exception of a few, made for government financing were mostly related to plantation of trees, establishing nurseries and making arrangements for dust-bins - the functions which were already being performed separately by the forest department and the private sector or local bodies, added the source.
Sindh Secretary Environment Shujaat A. Qarni told this scribe that the provincial department had proposed to the federalgovernment that the funds pertaining to the current year should be allocated to the projects prepared by universities and those prepared and executed by the SEPA in cooperation with the organizations of repute.
He said that the federal government in principle had approved the idea to divert the allocations from NGOs to different environment-related projects prepared by the universities or their subject-associations.
He feared that under the prevailing system, the major chunk of fund was consumed on paper with hardly anything visible on ground. He held that the mismanagement of environment-related projects could be sorted out by amending, modifying and refining the system.
