The government has decided to amend the existing Act which deals with both local and foreign Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in order to probe their activities and take appropriate action against them, Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka told Daily Mirror online.
The Premier said a Ministerial Committee appointed to propose amendments to the Act has already put forward a draft document which would be taken up for discussion and later implemented following the General Elections in April.
The draft document has already been sent to the Attorney General for his advice and it includes a proposal to give the government all the powers to take action against Non Governmental Organizations.
Prime Minister Wickramanayaka noted that several NGOs and INGOs were found to have acted against the sovereignty of Sri Lanka in recent times, but appropriate action cannot be taken against them as the existing laws under the NGO Act are weak.
Meanwhile, the Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Administration which deals with NGOs, R.D Newton Perera, speaking to the Daily Mirror online said the government also wants to probe the financial accounts of several NGOs.
He said the government would seek to obtain details of the monthly expenditure of some NGOs as, according to him, most of the money obtained by some organizations was being used for their personal welfare and not for the displaced people.