By Matters India Reporter
New Delhi, May 10, 2022: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on May 10 detained ten people, including six government officials, for allegedly taking bribes to allow non-government organizations to receive overseas funds.
The arrests took place a day after the agency cracked down in 40 locations in the country.
The detained officials worked under the federal Home Ministry’s department that deals with the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA).
The raids were launched when the home ministry complained to the CBI about corruption in granting FCRA licenses, a home ministry spokesperson told reporters.
“The MHA [Ministry of Home Affairs] received complaints of corruption from many NGOs regarding consultants who promised speedy renewal of registration and were charging money for the same. The complaint was examined and the complicity of a few Home Ministry officials was found to be true,” the home ministry official said.
The detained officials allegedly gave illegal Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) clearances to NGOs in exchange for bribes.
Media reports quoted the CBI sources the agency also detained NGO representatives and middlemen who were caught exchanging bribes for securing foreign funding clearances. Twelve NGOs are under investigation, the premier investigation agency said.
The agency has also reportedly found transactions of around 20 million rupees routed through illegal channels. The searches were conducted in Delhi, Rajasthan, Chennai, Mysore, among other places.
The renewal of the FCRA registration of several thousand NGOs began in 2021. The process was severely affected because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The ministry gave several extensions because of the slow-renewal process; the latest deadline has been revised to June 30.
“Due to the slow renewal process, many consultant groups sprang up and advertised on websites. In complicity with the MHA officials, they were not only indulging in corruption to get the renewals done but were helping the NGOs which had received notices for FCRA violations,” said the official.
The FCRA registration of nearly 6,000 NGOs ended January 1 as the ministry refused to renew their application or the NGOs did not apply for registration. India had 16,890 FCRA-registered NGOs on May 10, down from more than 22,000 on December 31, 2021.
The FCRA registration norms were revised in 2015, making license renewal mandatory every five years.
The FCRA license is mandatory for the NGOs to receive foreign funds.
This corruption by officials of the Home Ministry could be due to the cumbersome FCRA renewal process and also a lack of transparency. Projects of many NGOs including very reputed ones, which have stringent audit systems, have been badly hampered due to the very slow renewal which in many cases is being granted in 3-month phases instead of a straight 5-year renewal. Why should the NGOs which have a consistent record of having worked for the uplift of the downtrodden suffer?
These officials must be fired.