Foreign funding for Greenpeace frozen

NEW DELHI: The government on Thursday choked all foreign funding to Greenpeace India by suspending its registration under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), 2010 for six months. The home ministry attributed its action to several discrepancies in the NGO’s accounts and other FCRA violations.
Greenpeace, earlier accused by intelligence agencies of working against India’s economic interests, was also served a notice asking why its FCRA certification should not be cancelled permanently. “The said association may… make a representation against the order within 30 days of its receipt,” the order, issued by the home ministry’s foreigners division, said.
Greenpeace responded by slamming the order as a “smear” campaign of the government and said it won’t be cowed down.
The four-page government order said, “The central government, having regard to the information and evidence in its possession, is satisfied that the acceptance of foreign contribution by the said association… has prejudicially affected the public interest… and economic interest of the state… which violates the conditions for grant of certification of registration.” The FCRA registration of Greenpeace India was being suspended for 180 days, the home ministry said.
Greenpeace India executive director Samit Aich claimed the suspension was part of a “smear” campaign. “All of this was put before the Delhi high court when we brought a case against the Centre, and the court decided in our favour. This feels like a revealing moment, one that says much more about the MHA than it does about Greenpeace… A campaign is being waged against dissent, but we will not be cowed down.”
The NGO claimed it had 77,768 financial supporters within India, who contributed Rs 20.76 crore last fiscal. As per home ministry records, Greenpeace received Rs 53 crore in foreign contributions over the last seven years.
Aich, however, said, “Our work is supported by people of this country and 70% of Greenpeace India’s funds come from Indian donors.”
Earlier this year, Greenpeace activist Priya Pillai was offloaded from a flight to London where she was headed to brief British parliamentarians on the Mahan coal block project. A court later cancelled the lookout notice against Pillai on the basis of which she was deplaned.
The action against Greenpeace follows an on-site inspection of its accounts and records from September 24 to 27 last year. The inspection found that though foreign contributions were received by Greenpeace in its FCRA-designated bank account and duly transferred to its FCRA utilization account, they were further channeled to five other bank accounts without informing the authority concerned, in violation of FCRA rules. The banks holding these accounts — IDBI Bank, Yes Bank and ICICI Bank — have been asked to freeze them with immediate effect.
Greenpeace was found to have under-reported and repeatedly mentioned incorrect amounts of foreign contributions, in violation of Section 33 of FCRA, “the most glaring example being foreign contribution opening balance for 2008-09 which was reported as nil in the auditor’s certificate but was actually Rs 6.60 crore”, the home ministry said.
The suspension order faulted the NGO for shifting its office and activities from Chennai to Bengaluru and also replacing 50% or more of its executive committee members without approval or intimation of the home ministry.
Other irregularities included spending over 50% of foreign contributions on administrative expenses in 2011-12 and 2012-13, without the Centre’s approval. Also, Greenpeace funded legal costs for seeking bail and filing writ petitions for an associated Indian NGO and its activists, in violation of Section 8(1)(a) of FCRA.
The order charged Greenpeace with paying Rs 8,05,027 to employees of Greenpeace Environment Trust, a separate trust with a different PAN number. Under Section 7 of FCRA, foreign contribution cannot be transferred from an FCRA-registered NGO to a non-FCRA registered one.
In addition, Greenpeace India is said to have willfully suppressed payment of 56,951 euros as annual salary by Greenpeace International to Greg Muttitt, a foreign Greenpeace activist who worked on secondment with GIS in India for five-and-a-half months.
The Intelligence Bureau has, in a set of reports on activities of foreign-funded NGOs, including Greenpeace India, alleged that they were using people-centric issues to create an environment which lent itself to stallisng development projects.
READ ALSO: Unblock foreign funds of Greenpeace India, HC tells govt