NGOs asked to declare assets under RTI

Express News Service Posted: Sep 21, 2009 at 0054 hrs

Ahmedabad In A move aimed at bringing accountability and transparency in the functioning of NGOs in Gujarat, Janpath – a network of 217 NGOs in the state – has decided to ask the trustees of all member NGOs to declare their assets, which will be put on a website.
This was declared by Harinesh Pandya, the secretary of Janpath, at their Annual General Meeting at Gujarat Vidyapith on Sunday.

He told Newsline: “Today, we passed the resolution at our meeting asking the trustees and managing trustees of all member NGOs to make their assets public. We will design a detailed form to declare the assets, which will be sent to all member NGOs across Gujarat. We expect the concerned trustees to send back the form filled with the details of their assets so that it can be put on the website.”

He added: “We are inclined to bring in accountability in NGOs. Let us see how the NGO office bearers respond to the resolution.”

Pankti Jog, another Janpath office bearer said: “All NGOs use the RTI (Right to Information) Act with a motive to bring transparency in the system. We felt that the same transparency, which we desire from the government system, is not available in the functioning of NGOs. Therefore, we have resolved to ask member NGO trustees to declare their assets as Pro Active Disclosures under the provisions of the RTI Act.”

State Information Commissioner R N Das was one of the guests on the occasion.

In his speech, he asked all NGOs to reply to any RTI application demanding their details, as NGOs getting funds — either directly or indirectly from the government— fall within the purview of the RTI Act.