Transparency in relief activities: Minister vents his spleen on NGOs

Source: Dawn

Date: 03 Sep, 2010

PESHAWAR, Sept 2: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Irrigation Pervez Khattak has burst into a diatribe against non-governmental organisations engaged in the relief activities in the flood-hit areas of the province.

“The NGOs are thieves and plunderers and nobody can dare to hold them accountable for spending the funds meant for the relief of flood survivors,” he alleged, while taking part in the general debate on the flood situation in the provincial assembly on Thursday. Speaker Karamatullah Khan Chaghermati presided over the proceedings. 

The minister said that NGOs were turning poor people into beggars and defaming the government too. He demanded that NGOs engaged in relief activities in the flood-hit areas of the province should be held accountable.

Mr Khattak was of the view that NGOs were receiving funds while general impression was that the government and public representatives were misusing relief assistance. He proposed that the government should conduct audit of the NGOs, which had received funds from donors in the name of affected people.

Taking part in the discussion Senior Minister Bashir Ahmad Bilour said that previous government had diverted £ 300 million, meant for rehabilitation and reconstruction activities in the earthquake-hit areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Azad Kashmir as a result international community response was initially slow in the disaster.

Link for details: http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/national/transparency-in-relief-activities-minister-vents-his-spleen-on-ngos-390