All foreign and domestic-funded Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) will now be under the ambit of Lokpal.
All foreign and domestic-funded Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) will now be under the ambit of Lokpal. Further, both the NGOs and their top executives will have to file details of income and assets before the proposed anti-corruption body.
According to rules recently notified by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), NGOs receiving more than one crore rupees as government grant and donations above Rs 10 lakh from abroad will be under the ambit of the Lokpal. All office bearers of such NGOs will now be treated as “public servants” and charged under the anti-corruption law in case of financial irregularities.
These rules will apply to NGOs, Limited Liability Partnership firms — which can be a law or real estate firm — or any such group partly or wholly financed by the central government. However, big corporates will be out of the ambit of Lokpal. Anti-corruption activists have expressed concern over the government’s move to ignore private sector bribery by exempting such companies from the Lokpal’s jurisdiction.
As per the new rules, the home ministry has been made the competent authority to take action against executives of foreign-funded NGOs in case they are found misusing overseas grants. Any person who is or has been a director, manager, secretary or any other officer of a society will be under the Lokpal ambit.
