[rti_india] Re: Clarification on ethics in India

Dear Mr Goyal

The book was published in 2006 if I recall rightly. The title was
"NGO Finance and foreign funding, an anti-national industry". The book was written by 2 fearless writers, one of whom was an IAS officer and the other a research scholar from Chennai. The book is now out of print, but several members here have e-copies in PDF format.

Here is a brief extract from it on an aspect of NGO financing
characteristic of what the authors describe as the "Manderweb"
(but which is actually a network much beyond and older than Harsh Mander).
NB: This extract is only 1 paragraph of an entire chapter in an
explosively detailed book which takes the pants off everyone
we discuss regularly on this group.

"10. The rise of the unstructured organisation

Note the rise of the unregistered unstructured organisation. Promoted
as `a citizens' initiative' or `a people's movement' by Manderians
(and led and controlled by them in an `association of persons'), it
avoids the accountability required of a legally registered NGO, it
claims as a USP that it takes no foreign donations (and so it avoids
official clearance for foreign support in cash), but it has no
difficulty at all accepting generous foreign support in kind, none of
which need be reflected in the personal accounts of its leaders or in
any public account it presents. Former IAS and other ex-sarkari types
(including judges) are closely involved to provide it with
`respectability' and their connections still in the sarkar provide
protection, in return from it of post-retirement sinecures for
themselves.

Consider the ActionAid/MKSS-associated Right to Food Campaign, an
unstructured organisation that `survives mainly from individual
donations…..in rupees with no strings attached'. Please note the
cleverly suggestive use of `individuals' and `rupees' – yet
individuals can be foreign, foreign support can be in Indian rupees,
and an earlier listing in the site of support received in kind was
removed.

Between 12/2002 and 12/2004, this Campaign reported donations received
`worth' Rs 7,67,595/-. This included a personal donation of Rs
3,00,000/- from Arundhati Roy, apart from Rs 1.5 lakhs from her
Zindabad Trust, but there is nothing to show that all donations are
receipted. The expenses during this period totalled Rs 9,71,939 and
appear to be overwhelmingly on salaries (Rs 3,21,000), campaign
materials (Rs 4,51,137, recovered through their sale) and at least Rs
1,33,417 on what appears to be expenses on participation in programmes
of others.

Now, the Campaign has a small `support group…all members of the
support group participate in the Right to Food campaign in their
personal capacity, without remuneration'. Excellent. But why are the
members of this support group not named; does `without remuneration'
mean they take care of their expenses too, or does the Campaign meet
those – and then how much are these expenses? There is a clue. The
Campaign has two Supreme Court-appointed `commissioners' (one of whom
is N.C. Saxena) that it appears to have co-opted and their address is
c/o the Centre for Equity Studies. Guess whom these commissioners have
as their `special advisor'? Harsh Mander. Guess who heads this Equity
Centre? Why, Mander's old friend Shekhar Singh, who won't reveal
whether Mander's ActionAid funded it!

Consider another entity called Parivartan that explicitly states it is
NOT an NGO. It is not registered under any Act as a society or a trust
or a company. It is a people's movement. For income tax purposes, it
is an Association of Persons. Note that, for income tax purposes, an
AoP is a coming together of persons with a profit motive, and the
members of an AoP (co-adventurers, in legal jargon) can have a share
in the income of the AoP – unlike the members of a registered society
who can have no such share. So who are the Parivartan AoP? Surely not
its five full-time workers – they get salaries, and they include a
serving government officer of the Indian Revenue Service.

No, the names in the AoP are given nowhere in its website, not even on
its `About Us' page, except one Manish Sisodia, shown as `part-time
volunteer' and described as `a founder-member' and `treasurer'. And
what are the terms of the agreement of association? Surely `the
people' are entitled to know the arrangement their self-appointed
leaders have made amongst themselves for any facilities, whether in
cash or kind, from the income of the AoP? And yet Parivartan demands
transparency and accountability from others.

Now, look at the Parivartan Receipt and Expenditure Statement FY
2002-03 (1/10 to 31/3) as displayed on its website. The receipts total
Rs 2,02,489 of which Rs 2,01,889 are donations; the expenditure totals
Rs 1,88,164. Of the latter, salaries total Rs 1,14,000. The only
`programme cost' is Rs 35,945 on a jan sunwai. The rest is all
standard office/administrative expense. In other words, about 93 per
cent of donations to Parivartan go not to `the people' but to
maintaining the AoP and its support infrastructure.

At the same time, Parivartan claims `the fixed costs are around Rs 6
lakhs per annum. This includes salaries of workers, rent, phone and
other office expenses', and it solicits generous contributions.
Programme costs are `partly funded through collections from the
community itself including poor people and the shortfall is made good
by raising funds from outside,' but the website is significantly
silent whether these are included in the receipts statement and,
especially, whether receipts are issued for `the small amounts donated
by a host of very poor people.'

This is transparency? This is accountability? Something wrong with
their maths? Or with their morals? "

Sarbajit

--- In rti_india@yahoogroups.com, Hari Goyal <rtidwarka@...> wrote:
>
> Dear Mr. Sharma,
>
> Â Your e-mail is a discovery. Please let me know the name of the Book, its year
> of publication and name of the publisher. I shall be grateful. Hope the book is
> available in Delhi.Â
>
> Â Best wishes and regards,
>
> Â Hari Goyal
> Â 011-25082239
>
> ________________________________
> From: S.D. Sharma <anonsharma@...>
> To: rti_india@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Thu, 2 September, 2010 4:32:25 PM
> Subject: [rti_india] Re: Clarification on ethics in India
>
> Â
> Dear Sir
>
> Only Wajahat Habibulah knows why in all his 5 years as Chief Commissoner
> (this means he makes maximum commission in all IAS officers) hes not
> set up norms for Central Information.
>
> Habibulah is always been known as anti Hindu boot licker who hate
> Kashmiri pandit. He is right person
> to tell why only former IAS/IFS officers now in NGO racketing are asking
> payments only in form of air tickets and hotel stay. Afterall Habibulah
> was travel agent in around 2003-2004 when he was in USA -CIA/USIP to
> arrange tickets
> and sponsporship in US for all ant-India RTI traitors like Aruna roy, Shekar
> singh, Harsh mandar etc. Habibulah specially got them sponsored by separatoinst
> organization in US like " American Federation of Indian Muslims", "Indian
> Muslim Council", "Voice of Asian Minorities", "Coalition against Communalism"
> and so many other to deliver lectures. This is all obtained form Indian Embassy
> and MEA by researchers using RTi and was published in book form also few
> years back and all these thing are explained well in book.
>
> S D Sharma
>
> --- In rti_india@yahoogroups.com, Nicholas Santiago <nick.santiargo@> wrote:
> >
> > dear members
> >
> > Sarbajit's remark about the lack of a "code of conduct" for RTI
> > Information Commissioners makes me post this.
> >
> > I am in-charge of a substantial budget (we are financed by a cess on
> > the whisky trade) which we grant to NGOs/SAGs operating in UDC and LDC
> > nations in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean, Now while some SAGs in
> > India accept our funds directly as cash / bank transfers, others
> > insist that they shall only take it in the form of hospitality, air
> > tickets to conventions etc.
> >
> > I need to know more about this since my governors have asked me about
> > this to finalize our foundation's grants for next year.
> >
> > Cheers.
> >
> > Nicholas Santiago
> > Program Officer (FNoIA)
> > World Autism & Disabilities Foundation
> > Glasgow
> > nick.santiargo@
> >
> > PS: In case anyone on this mailing list meets our criteria for
> > financing, we still have 2 grants open for India (Euro 350,000 each) ,
> > 1 for advocacy promoting road access and signage in urban
> > concentrations, the other to prepare a national survey on electronic
> > information access to public records by unconventional means to aid
> > the disabled and limb challenged.
> >
>