Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has said that it is the right and responsibility of the government to monitor how Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) obtain funds and how they are spent. In a meeting with the local media heads today , the Sri Lankan President said that many millions of rupees come into the country on a monthly and yearly basis and currently there is no mechanism to monitor from where they come from and how these funds are utilized. Sri Lankan President, citing India as an example, added that almost no other country in the world allows organizations to bring large amounts of money into the country and spend them on projects of their own without any monitoring by the government.’Therefore, the government intends to work out a suitable policy to monitor their activities’, President Rajapaksa said. He pointed out that specific guideline are needed for NGOs to obtain funds through the correct methods and spend in a correct manner. He emphasized that this is not an anti-NGO policy but a valid mechanism to ensure that the people benefit through such funds. Time and again the Sri Lankan government has been raising the issue of the source of NGO funding and has also raised doubts on the intent of the work being done by certain NGOs as being supportive of the cause of the LTTE propaganda efforts. Sri Lankan authorities say that the intention is not to of harass any NGO or INGO. The on-going investigation would focus only on those, who had allegedly received millions of rupees, particularly in the wake of Feb. 2002 ceasefire agreement brokered by Norway. In response to Executive Director of the National Peace Council (NPC) Dr. Jehan Perera being questioned by the CID regarding funds received by his organization, Director General of the Media Centre for National Security (MCNS) Lakshman Hulugalle says only a handful of NGOs would be subject to an investigation by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) with regard to funds received by them from foreign governments and overseas NGOs over the years. Mr Hulugalle also alleged that the Amnesty International (AI) had backed a major LTTE propaganda effort against the Sri Lankan government in early 2007.