Where we are heading……… ( Not for Profit ? )

I had a different experience when I visited a District Commissioner’s office in North Karnataka with X, who runs an NGO in North Karnataka. He is seeking a project called “Raita Seva Kendra” and to implement this project in a place which connects 22 villages. Project budget is 50,000 Rs/ Month. Break up- 10,000 - Administrative cost. 40,000 – Salary for 4 executives who do field work (which is directly credited to their Bank account and not paid through NGO). We completed the formalities and left from DC office where in about 5 minutes X got a call from the concerned officer, the person who called looking for 15% of the project cost as Bribe, and X was busy negotiating and finally they settled down for 10%. I made sure I asked X with the little money after corrupting an official; how much it remains for the project and how many it is going to benefit. He laughs, he said with that small amount I can’t even imagine of running a project and I have to corrupt that official otherwise I won’t get any projects. He even have to pay to the officer who audit / evaluate the project. Out of 4 executives selected for the project 2 are his relatives who are suppose to give the money back to him once it is credited in their bank account where they are not doing any field work.

I have seen this guy (X) negotiating for many other projects (corrupting those officers) and currently he is running more than 12 projects (only on papers). I’m thinking why he is running an NGO? Similarly I had to meet an NGO head and been to his place. He was busy in a meeting and I was offered a chair in a place next to the meeting hall. I can hear and even see the presentations made. I came to know it’s a core committee members meeting where the project heads present project developments with the committee members. There was an update from the project head, who head a program called “Mid day meal” which serves food for 22,000 children every afternoon (as he says) and had tie-up with 120 rural schools that are benefited under this program. The update goes like this – out of 120 schools, 12 schools want to withdraw from the program as the food supplied was of poor quality and they want to complain this to the concerned authority. The project head has a solution for this; he convinced the school heads to continue with the program after paying them some money, he fears he may loose out on the project.

“Committee members agreed on this”. His next update was horrifying, he says 2 of the rural schools made an issue that rice they supplied contained lizard in it. But the project head was all successful in convincing the school heads not to disclose this to others and he did it just by offering a cool drink to them. “The committee members have all praise for his achievement”. Similar instance- An MNC supports an NGO to buy articles worth 15 lakh, they want to pay directly to the Vendor and not to the NGO. They requested a proposal and quotation for the same from NGO and give the liberty to choose the vendor. The NGO has adjustments with the vendor, they want to purchase articles worth 8 lakh but the invoice made should be for 15 lakh. Means they want the remaining money and the tax for the remaining amount can be paid. They update the vendor that MNC should not know about this. I come across many such cases every other day, there are crèche centers, child labor schools, family counseling centers etc which are only on paper and not implemented, but the money has been mis-utilized. If I have to list I get plenty of these, but it’s very painful to pen down. The question remains, where we are heading??

Source from: http://ngopost.org