NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the Central government to audit the books of over 30 lakh non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and voluntary organisations which receive government grants, recover money which had been embezzled and prosecute those responsible for it. The order did not specify the period for which the NGOs would be audited.SC also directed the government to put in place a regulatory mechanism which would keep a continuous check on use of public funds by NGOs and also ensure timely recovery and action against errant ones.A bench, led by CJI JS Khehar , was dealing with a PIL filed by advocate Manoharlal Sharma seeking a probe into funds allocated to NGOs. He had specifically sought a probe into funds allocated by Capart, an autonomous body under the Ministry of Rural Development, to two trusts run by Anna Hazare. These were sanctioned during the tenure of Venkaiah Naidu.“This is government money. Don’t squander it. There must be a mechanism to deal with this,” CJI Khehar observed. He observed the case left him with “not a good impression”. “It seems as if public funds were sanctioned for political reasons,” he said.There are 33 lakh NGOs and voluntary organisations, as per a CBI report filed in court in 2016. Of these, only 3 lakh file accounts with ministries. Most either disappear with the first installment or do not submit accounts.The ministries only blacklist NGOs which do not submit accounts, but do not either press for fund recovery and prosecute errant NGOs.As per the CBI report, some blacklisted NGOs succeed in getting funds from other ministries. In the absence of a regulatory mechanism, there are no regular checks and no methods of recovering public funds.This is despite rules which allow the government to audit the books of accounts of NGOs apart from the CAG audit of such grants by their respective ministries. The annual grants to such organisations, both by the Centre and the states, amount to a whopping Rs 9,000 crores.Appearing for the CBI, Additional SG Tushar Mehta claimed that the central government could only deal with funds sanctioned by central ministries, but not NGOs registered as societies or trusts in states.Amicus curiae Rakesh Dwivedi pointed out that the government doesn’t have a law in place to regulate funding to NGOs. It is still dealt with under the 2005 financial rules.He also pointed out that the rules allow the government to audit the accounts of those receiving such funds, but this is never done in practice.This prompted CJI Khehar to comment on the manner in which public funds were sanctioned and misused by NGOs and the government inaction on this score. “The government must work. It is slow,” Justice Khehar said, warning of heavy costs as the government kept seeking more time in each and every case to present its legal side.