Статьи на ту же тему
СМИ об исследованиях
|
| 01 апреля, 2013 | | | Читать на сайте издания |
Double Non-Governmental Agents
Kommersant Daily publication
Non Governmental Organisations (NGO’s) will receive around three billion roubles from the Government. By Order of the President, Vladimir Putin will allocate 2.3 billion roubles to six special operators and 630 million roubles to the Ministry of Economic Development. But certain Human Rights NGOs who receive foreign grants such as the ‘Moscow Helsinki Group’, ‘Memorial’ and the ‘For Human Rights’ movement, are also hoping to get State subsidies.
A new presidential decree entitled ‘Providing State Support for Non-profit, Non-governmental Organisations which implement Social Projects and participate in the Development of Civil Society’, affirms that the budgeted money will be divided up on a competitive basis by the six NGO-operators: the Institute of Problems of Civil Society; the Russian Union of Youth; the Knowledge of Russia Society; the National Charitable Foundation; the League of Nation’s Health, and the Institute of Socio-economic and Political Studies Foundation.
Funds from the State budget have been allocated annually since 2006. In that year 500 million roubles were allocated – 250 million of which were assigned by the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation – and the rest from the Presidential Administration’s Office. In 2007, 1.25 billion roubles were allocated and it was then decided to assign special operators (public organisations who are approved by the President) to apportion the funds by tender. In the post-recession years the number of subsidies fell: in 2009 it dropped to 1.2 billion and in 2010-2011 to 1 billion roubles. The State grants to NGOs were also relatively small – on average they received from 300,000 to 4 million roubles.
Today however, public organisations are queuing up to get their hands on this money. Even NGOs who receive money from abroad are gearing up to fight for Presidential grants - though they are doubtful of their chances. The fact is that, according the human rights activists, NGO’s were subjected to a wave of harsh mass inspections, which began in February. The inspections were carried out to expose organisations which were financed from abroad yet had not registered themselves as ‘foreign agents.’
Oleg Orlov, a member of human rights organisation ‘Memorial’s’ Board of Directors, insists: “the inspections were carried out to find any violations – particularly in the law on extremism – but their aim was to dig out ‘foreign agents’.”
Let us remember that in November 2012 an amendment was made to the law on NGOs stating that organisations which received support from abroad should register themselves on a special Ministry of Justice list as ‘foreign agents.’ As Kommersant reported on 29th March, from February onwards the Prosecutor’s Office inspected over 90 NGOs, demanding in every case to see all their financial documentation and their statutes and also requiring proof of foreign sources of funding. Yesterday, the Director of the human rights organisation ‘Agora’ tweeted: “The Prosecutor’s Office has started to hand out protocols on the results of the NGO inspections. The first comes from
However, NGOs which are financed from abroad have also received Presidential grants. For example, as Mr Orlov told Kommersant, ‘Memorial’ won a tender for a State grant two years ago. And Lyudmila Alexeeva from the Moscow Helsinki Group (MHG) says that they have repeatedly received State subsidies. “We received a grant four years ago, then we didn’t get one two years in a row even though we put in a tender for one. Then last summer we were given money to monitor laws relating to human rights.”
The ‘For Human Rights’ movement also won two grants last year. Lev Ponomarev, Director of ‘For Human Rights’ told Kommerstant that they received ‘around 4 million roubles on their ‘Civil Ombudsman’ project and around 2 million roubles on finding employment for ex convicts following their release.
Mr Ponomarev says he will “ask for money to continue these projects. I don’t know if they will be as tolerant as before or if they will try and put a spoke in our wheels with their ‘foreign agent’ policy. At the moment they’re not controlling us, but perhaps a witch hunt of human rights organisations is on the cards and they will be a lot tougher on us than on social NGOs.”
Ms Alexeeva from HMG says they also intend to put in a tender for a grant - as, it seems, does the human rights centre ‘Memorial.’ “We must apply for the grant before we are closed down” said Mr Orlov. “The results of the investigations will come out at the end of April, beginning of May. Only then will we know exactly where we stand.”
The Director of the ‘Agora’ society Pavel Chikov also hopes for a grant, particularly since the Ministry of Justice considers this NGO to be of a social orientation. Mr Chikov points out that ‘Agora’ received 20 million roubles last year – most of which came from foreign funding. “But I’m not intending to do away with foreign funding” he told Kommersant, “both for reasons of financial stability and because I don’t want to be dependent on the Russian government.”
Yelena Panfilova, Director of the Russian branch of ‘Transparency International’ told Kommersant that if her organisation applies for a grant it will be to “a programme from the Ministry of Economic Development” which has “more transparent mechanisms for allotting Presidential grants.”
One of the Directors of an NGO interviewed by Kommersant told us that: “While the final decision to give grants is being taken within the Presidential Administration’s Office - and is therefore a political one - there is no point in us applying for a Presidential grant.” He added that this was despite the fact that “foreign funds are now very hard to come by” and that the process of allotting grants is not transparent: “It is not clear whether these are budget funds or the personal funds of the President – a ‘Putin Fund’ – which is allotted at his own discretion.”
Dmitri Badovsky, Director of the ‘Institute of Socio-economic and Political Studies’ Foundation told Kommersant that the Institute is conducting a “tender for expert direction” and that human rights organisations are not, as a rule included in that tender. “We are monitoring the political and economic situation and seeing how it is developing and what will come of it.”
Moreover, Maria Slobodskaya President of the Institute for Problems in Civil Society told Kommersant that there will be no discrimination against human rights organisations. “When discussions took place within the Presidential Administration on the tendering process, we talked only of how to make it easier for NGOs to apply for grants” she told Kommersant. “There was no discussion on which NGOs would be preferred. Not so much as a hint.”
Konstantin Kostin, the Director of the Foundation of Development in Civil Society believes that future public funding of NGOs “should increase” and that the allocation of grants should be undertaken by specialised Autonomous Non-profit Organisations. He found it hard to pinpoint to what extent Russian grants would replace foreign financing, saying that “only estimated figures” were available. According to Mr Kostin the proportion of NGOs engaged in “public services” (now standing at 13.5%) and “expertise and control” will soon shift.
