NGOs faced political influence in aid disbursement: TIB

The non-government organisations , in their relief activities amid the Covid-19 pandemic, faced pressures from local representatives and politically influential people, says the Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB).

Some 18.3% agencies had to deal with political obstacles and were in cases forced to disburse aid to those who do not qualify, the anti-corruption found in a research, the findings of which was virtually revealed on Thursday.

It further found that at least 25% agencies encountered non-cooperation from local representatives in carrying out their relief programmes.  

The research titled – The Role of Non-government Organisations in Response to COVID-19 Pandemic: Challenges and Way Forward – was conducted from July 2020 to December 2021 on 74 international, national and local agencies.

A total of 41% participants faced challenges in distributing aid to remote areas of the country, according to the research paper, which was presented by Mohammad Abdul Hannan Shakhider, research associate at the TIB.

"The non-governmental organisations have worked without compromising their integrity and giving into irregularities and corruption. Yes, they could have done better, but what they have accomplished is commendable," TIB Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman said.

"Lack of funds was a big problem for these organisations," he added.

He said there was evidence of nepotism in providing assistance but no evidence of illegal financial transactions.

"Broadly speaking, I think the private sector has been able to play a proper role in tackling the pandemic," he observed.

According to the study, there were allegations against some microfinance institutions that they pressured borrowers to pay their instalments during the pandemic.

About 23% borrowers complained that they were pressurised while 8.3% borrowers faced indecent behaviour and threats from the lending company staffers. A26% faced problems in repaying loan instalments, the research found.

The main source of funding for more than two-thirds of the agencies that participated in the survey, was general fund and funding from their ongoing projects. In addition, 36.49 % of the agencies raised new funds over the pandemic situation.

The research has revealed that donor agencies cut funding by an average of about 25% during the pandemic, which led to microfinance-centric institutions to fall into financial crisis.

The TIB have recommended that the types, scopes, expenditures, beneficiary information of programmes undertaken by the non-governmental organisations should be published and regularly updated on the website of the respective agencies. To this end, the TIB has recommended 10 points including strengthening of the monitoring system through a supervisory body.