Who wants NGO accountability? My attention was drawn to an article "Who's Holding NGOs accountable?" that appeared in a weekly tabloid of February 2009 and which was authored by one Shridhar who purportedly claims to be a social activist and a civil engineer by profession. He quotes a statement of Mao who says that 'revolution is not a tea party' and took the liberty to tailor this quote in the context of Goa's NGOs to remind that 'agitation is not a tea party'. As a person associated with social movements from my student days and later with NGOs, I would like to tell this Shridhar that Mao may have been very right in the chinese context. But in the Goan context it will perhaps require Shridhar's sincerity to state that agitation and revolutions in Goa, which is the monopoly of real estate and politician sponsors, is about booze parties and not tea parties. Revolution is about plans designed by architects and engineers hired by real estate developers on dumping cement and mortar in Goa's villages; snd agitations are about putting the poor into a corner and forcing them into surrendering their land. NGOs have been booze party spoilers and so the murmurs against them. The learned writer if not grossly deficient in knowledge on NGO accounting norms, at least pretends to be so as regards accountability of NGO fundings and their availability in public domain. At least the NGO I am associated with at present, which Shridhar had recently visited but not bothered to enlighten himself in order to get his facts correct, would be most pleased to welcome him over 'only for a tea party' , as alcohol and smoking is prohibited on the campus, to discuss NGO accounting procedures which even our activist colleagues from the most backward districts of this country will be able to brief him about. Shridhar perhaps has got the impression that NGO accounting is like that of People's Abhiyans or political rallies at Azad Maidan and Lohia Maidan where payments for hire of buses amounting to a few thousands of rupees gets made by the organisers without duly signed receipt vouchers and without any records of the bus numbers and the names of the persons who receive the payments. To conclude, I am reminded of a famous konkani saying "Hanv chor zalear mhozo maincho bhavui chor".
-Soter D'Souza
