Some information about donor organizations

Mission of World Vision International USA – “WV is an international partnership of Christians whose mission is to follow our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in working with the poor and oppressed to promote human transformation, seek justice and bear witness to the good news of the Kingdom of God”. http://www.wvi.org/wvi/wviweb.nsf/maindocs/3F50B250D66B76298825736400663F21?opendocument.

“In Sri Lanka the activities of WV raised a strong alarm. Lt Col A.S. Amarasekara of Sri Lanka wrote: “After George Bush Jr became the President of the U.S., he made a speech in which he said that he would no longer support developing countries through their respective governments but would channel American aid through the American Christian Relief Organizations in these countries. WV is one such organization”*.

WV is very careful to keep its proselytizing disguised. Excerpts from a Tehelka report “In, Mayurbhanj, again in Orissa, WV regularly organizes spiritual development programs as part of its ADP package. WV supports local churches by organizing leadership courses for pastors and church leaders. WV India is active in Bhil areas and openly admits its evangelical intentions”*.

Gospel for Asia is a Texas based Christian missionary organization. According to its site it is involved in child education, ministering lepers, natural disaster relief and literature distribution for character development and further understanding of Jesus Christ. http://www.gospelforasia.org. “In 2008, the Kerala home minister revealed that GFA had received Rs 1044 crs in foreign donations in the last fifteen years. He added that the church has bought nearly 2,800 acres of land, including a 2200 acre rubber estate”*. *Quoted from Breaking India (www.breakingindia.com) by Rajiv Malhotra and Aravindan Neelakandan.

The website of Compassion International USA reads “Compassion believes that God’s purposes on earth are accomplished through the Church — including His purpose of bringing justice and mercy to the world’s poor and oppressed. That’s why our program is carried out exclusively through indigenous, evangelical bodies of believers”.
http://www.compassion.com/church-engagement.htm

There are, however, organizations that receive foreign funds and doing excellent work.

Utilization of Foreign Contributions

A comparison of FCRA reports for 2009-10 and 2008-09 show that classification of expenses does not appear to be consistent. For e.g. establishment expenses for 2008-09 as shown in the current year’s report is Rs 1330 crs, while in the previous year’s report as reflected above is Rs 5022 crs.

MHA acknowledges that it merely compiles the returns received by it into an annual report. Therefore, expenditure-wise heading stated above is neither properly audited nor scrutinised.

Some ideas
• The FCRA report states that the FCRA desk in the MHA is manned by a Deputy Secretary (foreign contribution) with four sections. Given the importance of monitoring foreign contributions and their impact on national security, the team needs to be strengthened. Some former officials suggest the team should consist of an Additional Secretary FCRA, two Joint Secretaries, and two Deputy Secretaries with adequate number of under secretaries. MHA needs to move away from being a centralized letter box, doing approvals and collating NGO accounts, and focus on field visits and audits instead.

• MHA sponsored annual audits for all associations who receive annual contributions of over Rs 10 crs. NGOs receiving Rs 5-10 crs should be audited once in two years and those getting Rs 1-5 crs once in three years. The Reserve Bank of India has empanelled auditors for bank audits; MHA can empanel reputed auditors for NGOs to report whether money was spent on areas for which MHA approval was taken.

• The deeper intent behind the Western world remitting thousands of crores into India annually needs to be probed and checked.

• Weakening the Hawala network through continuous monitoring, arrests and convictions.

It is time the Government woke up to the risks that uncontrolled foreign monies flowing to Indian NGOs pose to India’s economic progress, social cohesion and national integrity.

The author is a Chartered Accountant and founder www.esamskriti.com

First published www.rediff.com

Also read:
• FCRA report 2008 09
• FCRA report 2007 08
• Analysis of Foreign funding into India 2002 to 2007