Following is a compilation of three reports published in The Daily New Age on what Proshika is doing in the name of poverty alleviation.

Proshika Chief's Pet Dogs in Lap of Luxury:

NAZMUL AHSAN Proshika president Qazi Faruque Ahmed spent Tk 113,000 for his pet dogs in one year from donors' fund that was meant for the marginal people's poverty alleviation, revealed an official audit.

This was one of the unusual heads of accounts on which the foreign-funded NGO 'misused' about Tk 110 crore in five years from 1996 to 2001.

"Spending from Proshika's fund on housing, feeding, treatment and care of personal pet dogs of the Proshika president is contrary to financial discipline and a financial irregularity as well," said the 160-page audit report with 10 volumes of annexure backing the findings.

Finance and Planning Minister M Saifur Rahman formally apprised the donors of such irregularities, but some of them seemed sceptical of the findings and suggested commissioning of international auditors to double-check the allegations.

The official audit, headed by a senior bureaucrat, detected 83 heads of expenses that also included sending dependents abroad on scholarship, depositing 2 per cent of the aid money against the foreign currency account, and exceeding the permissible limit of budget by Tk 75 crore.

Besides, irregularities in purchasing motorcycles worth more than Tk 1.28 crore have also been detected by the audit.

"In the name of poverty reduction, Proshika in fact is burdening the poor people with debt. The poor people are rather being exploited in this way," the report said.

"Proshika is lending money it gets as grants from donors to the poor and charging high service charges from them to make profit," it said.

Each of the 'fortunate' dogs was allocated Tk 111 to Tk 121 daily as food allowance while Tk 18,300 was spent for construction of a shed for them and Tk 25,570 for electrification of the shed.

Two German shepherd dogs were bought at Tk 19,700 for the Proshika boss on July 30, 2001.

The rest of the money was spent on vaccination, treatment, cleaning and some other heads for the welfare of the dogs, the audit report mentioned.

A sum of Tk 210,000 was spent on celebrating the birthday of the Proshika chief and other family anniversaries from the NGO fund, the report said, adding that spending such an amount of donor's money, which is meant for the poor, for pets and birthdays is gross violation of terms and conditions.

Installation of a water pump at the Proshika chief's residence cost Tk 79,481 and net grille Tk 56,375, while about Tk 650,000 was spent for furnishing his office and residence with security glass, the audit further mentioned.

The NGO's fund was also misused on rates like paying residential electricity bills of Tk 40,051 against four vouchers between March 2000 and January 2001.

Installation of a security grille at the top floor of Qazi Faruque's residence cost Tk 107,034.

Proshika also spent Tk 744,535 as salaries and allowances for 10 ansars deployed at Faruq's residence between April 1999 and June 2001, which the report termed a serious financial irregularity and a gross abuse of power.

The Proshika president and his spouse spent Tk 1, 19,744.97 for treatment at the National Hospital, Singapore, without any advice of a specialist doctor, said the report, and termed it 'corrupt practice'.

Qazi Faruque borrowed Tk 10,73,401 from the provident fund unlawfully, the report further said, adding that the Proshika president took the loan by abusing his power.

Foreign Education for Faruque's Son with Donor Money:

Qazi Rubayyat Ahmed, son of Proshika president Qazi Faruque Ahmed, went to the University of Rochester in the US for higher studies, paying over Tk 74 lakh channelled from the NGO's funds.

The money was released between 1996 and 1999 in favour of Faruque's son in violation of NGO Affairs Bureau instructions and in a way that was not transparent, said an official audit report that found the NGO boss guilty of "gross irregularities of fund".

"The Proshika president awarded scholarships to his son and close ones abusing his authority," it said.

As per the budget approved by the bureau in favour of Proshika, no outsiders other than employees of the NGO were entitled to get money for studies abroad from Proshika's fund, the audit mentioned.

Of the amount disbursed for Faruque's sons education, Tk 7,077,586 ($140,886) was sent from Proshika's foreign currency account (No 01613129801) with the Motijheel branch of Standard Chartered Bank, while the rest of the money was transacted from ANZ Grindlays Bank.

The audit said Proshika had opened two FC accounts with those banks and transferred two per cent of all foreign donations to those accounts without any prior permission from the bureau.

"Opening the two FC accounts to bear the expenses of the Proshika's top officials' dependents on heads like foreign study and foreign tours proves the ill motive of Proshika," observed the audit report.

Rubayyat, in an application, sought a four-year "scholarship" to enrol in an undergraduate course in electrical and computer engineering at the University of Rochester. The application did not mention the exact amount required.

"Faruque approved the application without specifying the amount of scholarship. The process was not transparent," the audit report said.

The "scholarship" money was drawn unlawfully from the operation fund of the NGO, although Proshika claimed the money was channelled from the staff welfare fund, the audit said.

Such heads of expenses were not found in the audited financial statements of the staff welfare fund.

The total amount spent from the FC accounts was over Tk 93 lakh during the period between 1994 and 1996, the report said. The remaining amount was spent unlawfully against the head of awarding foreign "scholarships" in favour of dependents of other top officials of Proshika.

Anayet Karim, son of Proshika vice-president Mahbubul Karim, also received Tk 1,940,685 as "scholarship" for studying at the University of Adelaide in Australia.

Anayet sought Tk 687,320 for a three-year bachelor's degree in environment, but was given Tk 1,940,685, which the report termed as another irregularity committed by the Proshika chief.

Also, Tk 557,304 was awarded to the son of Monoranjan Saha, a top official of the NGO, for studying in India.

Proshika Continues Political Involvement:

While a large number of officials and employees, sacked from the Association of Development Agencies in Bangladesh, are agitating on the street to realise the arrears due to them, its chairman Dr Qazi Faruque Ahmed is funding political organisations in the name of civil society movements.

Also, when the matter of politicisation of the country's NGO sector and the sector's direct involvement in partisan politics is widely being questioned from various corners, Faruque's initiative to organise the voice of the civil society favouring certain political quarters has once again created controversy, confusion and no less indignation.

ADAB sacked the officials and the employees in January as it ran short of money due to the government's intervention and non-clearance of funds due to the alleged use of donor and charity money for partisan purposes during and before the last national election.

This time, the funding comes from Faruque's NGO Proshika to a number of programmes designed to unite 'non-communal and progressive political parties and forces for bringing an end to the on-going bad governance, corruption and crime'.

The Proshika boss has been cited in a government audit for gross "expropriation, abuse of funds for personal and political use", and buying patronage from political quarters.

A document procured by New Age states that a platform formed by Faruque, styled Oikyaboddho Nagorik Andolon, supplied manpower to Dr Kamal Hossain's rally organised to protest against the present government at Paltan Maidan on March 14.

Under the banner of Oikya Prochesta, Kamal held the rally denouncing the government and issued a six-month ultimatum to the government to improve the country's situation. The rally was a part of the ongoing movement against the government where AQM Badruddoza Chowdhury and chief of Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Janata League Kader Siddique joined hands with Kamal.

Similarly, in 1996, Faruque politically involved Proshika in favour of the Awami League and reportedly supplied manpower to the Janatar Mancha, which was organised by the political party to topple the then BNP government.

Faruque formed the platform of Oikyabaddh Nagarik Andolan on February 3, 2001 through a grand rally with a major contribution from Proshika. Later, on April 21, 2003 a national convention finalised the objectives and a work plan for the movement. It also decided to create its own fund with "donations from the people".

An official letter (dated March 7, 2004) signed by Faruque, the secretary general of the movement, said that on February 11, 2004 a discussion was held at Koitta, Manikganj with the participation of the district committee members of the movement.

The meeting recommended formation of a 'national platform' involving all 'progressive political forces'. The letter also referred that the process of the formation of the national platform for saving the country is also going ahead in a planned way.

According to the March 7 letter, Faruque divided Bangladesh into three zones to organise Dr Kamal's rally, and Proshika instructed its people to ensure the participation of 1,000 to 1,500 people from each zone.

On the other hand, the capital Dhaka was divided into eight zones to ensure 5,000 to 6,000 people from each zone.

According to the guideline of the platform for fund raising, it was decided to collect donations from the people through field level workers of Proshika who are assigned to run social activities such as micro-credit programmes and mass literacy programmes. Also, the guideline envisages mandatory donation from all Proshika officials and employees across the country.

Meanwhile, the sacked officials and employees continued their agitation at the ADAB's headquarters at Lalmatia in the city and continued attending the office on Thursday demanding reinstatement of their jobs and payment of arrears.

However, two top level officials of ADAB, who are serving on contract, stayed away from the office in the face of the agitation.

Coordinator of the ADAB Employees' Wefare Parishad Syed Mosaddeq Hossain told New Age on Thursday that they were still hopeful of a good solution.

"Still we are looking for alternatives for an end to the crisis. We are contacting top bosses of different NGOs to create pressure on the ADAB to meet our demands." said Hossain.

(Source: The Daily New Age)