Ministry tells NSFs to make their account details open to public

Sabi Hussain

New Delhi, October 26

India’s National Sports Federations (NSFs) will no longer be able to defy the Sports Ministry’s directive to place their audited annual accounts and balance sheets on their websites. The Ministry has asked the NSFs to register under the NITI Aayog (earlier known as Planning Commission) by October 30.

Failure to do so will result in the Ministry not renewing the federations’ “Annual Recognition” and stopping the financial grants for the financial year 2017-18. Even then if they don’t follow the orders, the Ministry will then contemplate de-recognising the federations. There are a total of 51 recognised NSFs and out of them, according to a Ministry official, only Hockey India, All India Chess Federation, Athletics Federation of India and All India Football Federation have provided the information of their audited accounts and balance sheets on their websites.

The move was necessitated following the non-adherence of the Ministry’s earlier communications to the NSFs and the Indian Olympic Association to get their accounts audited by chartered accountants on the panel of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. 

After the registration process, the NITI Aayog’s Project Appraisal and Management Division will do the annual appraisal of the federations’ performance and based on that the Ministry will decide the annual financial grant to the NSFs.   

Not only this, the Ministry has also accorded the status of NGO to the 51 NSFs and a notification will soon be issued in this regard.