Big debacle in NGO sector

A turmoil is going on in the NGO sector where promising senior executives and active organisers are being subjected to transfer, dismissal or forced retirement.
A number of victims told this reporter that the NGO bosses who have been reigning over the NGO affairs for long have opted for such actions fearing a challenge from within the organisations against their prolonged and permanent leadership.
The situation was exposed with the capture of Proshika office by the workers and counter-action by the Proshika chief Quazi Faruque.
Big bosses do not want a second man who can be a competitor for leadership. Rather they are setting up their family members and relatives in important posts. Sources said, Grameen Bank Managing Director Dr Muhammed Yunus recently sent his deputy Dipal Chandra Barua into forced retirement. Dipal Barua was one of the founders of Grameen Bank.
Many other senior officials of the micro-credit institution have also been removed in recent times. Its founder staff and senior members are passing there time in panic in the wake of continuous retrenchments and transfers, sources said.
A similar situation is also going on in the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) where most of the senior staff have already been removed or going to be replaced by the family members and relatives of its top man, sources added.
Sources said, family members of Fazle Hasan Abed are already holding the key posts of BRAC while some of its subsidiaries are under the control of his wife, daughter, son, daughter-in-law or other close relatives.
The BRAC chief recently set his son Sameron Abed as programme manager of the NGO giant. Pushpita Alam, who is engaged to Sameron Abed, has been appointed in a senior position in the communication department of BRAC and she is going to be promoted to a senior position very soon, sources said.
Imtiaz Mohiuddin, son of Kaniz Fatema, a close relation of Abed has been appointed to the key post of the director for Microfinance – transferring Sabbir Ahmed Chowdhury, a key organiser of BRAC.
Programme Co-ordinator Shamsuzzaman Mia, who was also a founder organiser of BRAC, has been sent into forced retirement.
Programme Co-ordinator Habibur Rahman, programme managers Paresh Mandal and Hamiduzzaman, senior regional managers Syed Rafiqul Islam, Abdul Khaleq, regional manager Ashraful Islam have been sent to forced retirement very recently.
Sources pointed out that Fazle Hasan Abed’s third wife and Sarwar Abed and daughter Tamara Abed were made directors of BRAC and are handling key responsibilities of its important subsidiary institutions.
Boards of Directors of most of the NGOs in Bangladesh are dominated by the family members and relatives of the initiators of the respective organisations.
The expulsion of Quazi Faruque from Proshika has prompted the NGO lords to consolidate their institution with their trusted persons, sources said.
Flouting existing law, the micro-credit institutes, foreign funded and also nationally financed NGOs are being operated as family business in the name of charities. Many influential persons in the society are also manoeuvring these institutions in the name of human rights organisations.

Courtesy of The New Nation