WASHINGTON, June 24: The Bush administration is wielding its financial clout to make charitable relief organizations that receive US government money serve the interests of US foreign policy, the organizations say.

In parallel, the US Agency for International Development this month imposed new conditions on publicity activities when it negotiated a $70 million community action program in Iraq with five of the organizations, they say.

Three of the five organizations have reached agreements that require them to seek clearance from USAID before they have dealings with the media, they add.

A USAID official said on Tuesday that the Iraqi agreements were a separate issue but confirmed an NGO report that USAID administrator Andrew Natsios believes nongovernmental organizations should publicize the US government financial contribution to their activities.

“This is an issue that we feel very strongly about,” Jeffrey Grieco, a senior USAID official, told Reuters.

Natsios caused a stir last month when he told a closed meeting of NGO leaders that aid agencies in the field should identify themselves as recipients of US funding to show a stronger link to American foreign policy.

“If this does not happen more often, Natsios threatened to personally tear up their contracts and find new partners,” said the NGO consortium InterAction. “NGOs ... are an arm of the US government,” it quoted him as saying.

USAID has not disputed the account and Grieco said Natsios was thinking of making his point of view public.

Grieco said Natsios had made several complaints about the conduct of NGOs. “He made some specific points that we have a problem with. Andrew will decide how to communicate the key message that came out of that meeting,” Grieco said.

To add to the sense of a concerted campaign against uncooperative NGOS, the American Enterprise Institute held a seminar earlier this month attacking the organizations for attitudes deemed hostile to big business.

The institute is one of the Washington think tanks most closely associated with the Bush administration.

‘PESKY NGOs’: One paper at the seminar accused NGOS of obstructing prosperity and good health in Africa, another of promoting “anti-capitalist” themes through their criticism of some corporate activities.

The NGO community is divided over over how to react, with some seeing a concerted effort against them and others not.

The NGOS invited to take part in the Iraqi program have had their own internal debates over whether to accept the restriction on their media activities, which NGO officials said was unprecedented in USAID agreements.

Mercy Corps and Save the Children/United States have managed to renegotiate the language of the troublesome clause but had not yet decided on Tuesday whether to sign, Mercy Corps and USAID spokespeople said.

“We have had a lot of discussion. But we do remain independent and if our guidelines are violated we reserve the right to suspend our project,” said Margaret Larson, Mercy Corps’s vice president for communications.

But spokesmen for two other organizations — ACDI/VOCA and International Relief and Development (IRD) — said they decided they could live with the restrictions on their independence.—Reuters