Daily Times

KARACHI: The Sindh government has decided to conduct an audit of more than 8,200 non-governmental organizations (NGOs), involved in various social and human development sectors, with an aim to ascertain the sources of their finances and the financiers, Daily Times has learnt.

There are more than 8,200 NGOs operating in the Sindh province out of which some 4,000 are non-operational, they never got their licenses renewed and their offices do not exist on given address/locations, according to sources.

“The decision with regard to audit the NGOs and their sources of finances were taken in the cabinet meeting chaired by newly installed chief minister Syed Murad Ali Shah”, the sources added.

After the decision, the Social Welfare Department has constituted various district-level teams who would compile the data of the NGOs so that their audit could be started .

Conducting audit of NGOs is necessary and in this regard some changes in the law a would be presented before the Sindh Assembly very soon, sources said. Another reason behind the audit of the NGOs was the non-utilization of the funds by the welfare organizations who are only making money instead of serving the masses, they said, adding that most of the NGOs lack ‘ground-work’ who claim to serve women, education, health etc sectors and the performance of the NGOs that exists only on papers was zero.

When contacted, Deputy Director Social Welfare Department he told Daily Times that committees have been constituted to gather details of the functional and non-functional NGOs so a detailed audit can be done .

“There are a number of NGOs who never bothered to get their licenses renewed nor they have submitted audit reports of their finances”, the officer added.