NCW is helping itself with taxpayer money, but just not helping women

Fresh news breaks about National Commission for Women’s wayward ways with taxpayer money:

Audit raps NCW for huge backlog, spendthrift ways

NEW DELHI: * Of the 12,895 complaints that came to National Commission for Women (NCW) between 2008-09, only a little over half (7,509) were addressed. Of these, only 14% could be disposed of.

Conclusion: The words Accountability and NCW should never be used in the same sentence.

* Out of the 22 NGOs or individuals that were given grants worth Rs 22 lakh for research projects, 15 have not even submitted an interim report.

Conclusion: What a women’s NGO does with taxpayer money is nobody else’s business.

* Mandatory requirements like jail visits to assess living conditions of women have not been made for the past 4 years.

These observations, made by the Comptroller & Auditor General's (CAG) inspection report, indicate the malaise that has crept into the NCW. The commission, set up to mitigate hardships and address concerns of women, has run into rough weather itself.

The inspection found that of the 12,895 cases, 7,509 were taken up. Of these, only 1,077 were disposed of.

Admitting that the commission was battling a huge backlog of cases, NCW chairperson Girija Vyas said, "The rate of disposal is low because of several reasons. We lack trained manpower and resources. We are at present managing with a small staff whereas the number of complaints has been steadily increasing. Several of the complaints that come to us are being fought in court. We cannot send people away on the plea that the matter is subjudice. But I am concerned about the large number of cases and have demanded additional trained manpower."

Another major lapse pointed out by the audit report is that no jail visit -- as mandated under the NCW Act -- was made between 2006-2007 to 2008-2009. Also, grants amounting to Rs 23.30 lakh were made to 22 NGOs/individuals between 2005-2006 and 2008-2009. Of these 22 cases, even the interim report was not received in 15 cases after a lapse of 5 to 30 months. Incidentally, the commission has not even initiated any action to recover the grant from the defaulters who failed to comply with the time schedule prescribed.

The inspection report notes that "the internal control in the NCW to monitor timely submission of interim/final reports was ineffective in monitoring the compliance to the terms of the research study grant/assistance".

Comment: To spread male-hatred in name of gender studies requires no research grant, just willingness to shout about gender injustice and party on with the money women NGOs get.

Vyas said the commission was in the process of scrutinising each case and blacklisting the NGOs that had failed to perform. "We are now giving research studies to universities and state commissions to avoid these problems. We also plan to blacklist those who have been unable to deliver," Vyas said.

Comment: Interested activists should file an RTI on NCW to find out the blacklist soon.  It is your money they are playing with and spreading anti-male lies with that.

Other irregularities pointed out by CAG include irregular payment of pay and allowances amounting to Rs 71.68 lakh against lapsed posts, excessive expenditure on seminars and meetings amounting to over Rs 32 lakh and travel allowance and daily allowance claims that the inspection report was unable to verify.

Vyas, however, said all these financial objections raised by the audit had been addressed. "We have replied to all the objections raised by the CAG on financial irregularities to their satisfaction," she said.