The government is mulling separate fund for non-governmental organisations in the twelfth five-year plan.

“As NGOs are eyes and arms of the government, a significant portion would be allocated for these groups in the twelfth-five year plan,” Syeda Hameed, member planning commission said at a conference here on Friday.

Transparency and accountability of NGOs also figure high in the 2012-2017 plan. “The need for transparency through monitoring of these organisations is required in the society,” Hameed said.

Apart from their own source of funding, NGOs in India get monetary help from government through the Central Social Welfare Board and the Council for Advancement of People’s Action and Rural Technology (CAPART) which was formed in 1986 to promote NGOs.

Different speakers from the NGOs sector narrated their experiences in raising funds in India. Speakers from both the corporate and NGO sectors admitted that corporate funding could only be sustained if there was greater transparency from both sides.

The speakers also debated on checking and bokking organisations that siphon funds provided to them to do developmental work.

Thomas Chandy, CEO of Save the Children admitted admitted to a trust deficit between funders and NGOs.

“The trust deficit is lacking because NGOs do not have self-regulatory body to govern,” Chandy said.

“There is responsibility to act as conduit for the purpose to help poor people, those who are outside the radar of development. For long time, NGOs are delivering outputs. It is time that they should act on the accountability part,” Mohammad Musa, CEO, CARE India said.

Venkat Krishnan, founder-director, GiveIndia spoke about educating and sharing information proactively with the donor agencies in India. “If we don’t educate our donors proactively and tell them what we did with their money, it is very difficult to get them to fund us,” Krishnan commented.

In May, vice president Hamid Ansari spoke about bringing NGOs, autonomous organisations, societies and trusts within the purview of the comptroller and auditor general of India (CAG) for ensuring better “transparency and accountability”.

The conference was organised by the Credibility Alliance, a network of NGOs, which works for accountability and transparency in the voluntary sector through accreditation of the NGOs. It was supported by Oxfam, VSO and Public Affairs Centre.