The Hindu – Sri Lanka to amend law on NGOs
The Sri Lankan Government is to amend the Act which deals with Non Governmental Organisations (NGO) with the objective to enable the concerned agencies to probe their activities and take appropriate action against them, Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka told the Daily Mirror online.
It quoted the Premier as saying that a Ministerial Committee appointed to propose amendments to the Act has already put forward a draft document which will be taken up for discussion and later implemented after the parliamentary election due on April 8.
“The draft document has already been sent to the Attorney General for his advice and it includes a proposal to give the government all the powers to take action against Non Governmental Organisations”, it said.
Further, Sri Lanka Prime Minister noted that several NGOs and International NGOs were found to have acted against the sovereignty of Sri Lanka in recent times but appropriate action cannot be taken against them as the existing laws under the NGO Act are weak.
The Website quoted the Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Administration which deals with NGOs, R.D. Newton Perera as saying that the Government also wants to probe the financial accounts of several NGOs.
He told the Website that the government will seek to obtain details of the monthly expenditure of some NGOs as, according to him, most of the money obtained by some organisations is being used for their personal welfare and not the displaced people.
Last week Sri Lankan Foreign Affairs Minister Rohitha Bogollagama complained to two visiting envoys that some countries were channelling funds via INGOs and local Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) to destabilise democracy in the island-nation.
A statement by the Foreign Ministry quoted Mr. Bogollagama as saying, “An amazing amount of assets have been found by the same authorities and it is a proven fact now that these funds have reached Sri Lanka via some International INGOs and local NGOs. He expressed his highest dissatisfaction for channelling such funds to destabilise democracy in Sri Lanka.”
Though the Minister has not named any particular country, his remarks assume significance against the backdrop of the February 10 interview of Gothabaya Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka Defence Secretary, with the Singapore-based Straits Times where he had talked about the alleged coup plans of the former Army chief, retired General Sarath Fonseka.
“We are 100 per cent convinced that western countries with vested interests were backing him. Even the U.S., and countries like Norway, spent lots of money on his campaign. More
