Since 2012, the Hungarian Government has expressed its worries about the distribution of the EGT/Norwegian NGO Fund several times. From then on the Hungarian party’s repeatedly emphasized criticism was that Ökotárs Foundation and other consortium foundations cooperating in the implementation are distributing the funds in a non-transparent way and not according to the previously determined objectives. On April 7th, 2014, János Lázár, then as the State Secretary in charge of the Prime Minister’s Office, sent a letter to the Norwegian government expressing his doubts and asking to renegotiate the institutional structure of the Norwegian NGO Fund in order to ensure that it serves the original goal of the strengthening and the development of the civil society. The information received by the Government has lead to the conclusion that Ökotárs has made biased decisions when distributing the funds, following the principles of a political party or satisfying the needs of a narrow ideological circle several times.
In the practice marked by the name of Ökotárs it has occurred repeatedly that organisations of the same interest received or made decisions about the funds. Once the Government becomes aware of such anomalies about the use of public funds, it cannot leave it without a comment. In order that the Hungarian Government is assured that the distribution of the NGO Fund is carried out in line with the regulations, it has ordered an investigation authorised by law. We are hopeful that after much deliberation, Norway will also come to the conclusion that an investigation targeting the distribution of grants in line with the regulations and its results is not only in the interest of governments but of the whole Hungarian civil sector directly eligible for funding.
Unfortunately, especially those organisations express their disagreement with the ambition to ensure the transparency of a system in charge of public funds that fight for transparency and balance. Those, arguing for the unobjectionable activity of Ökotárs, should admit that an investigation proving their views would serve their interest.
Later, instead of co-operation in the investigation in order to clarify the situation, in disagreement with the Government’s criticism, concrete examples were requested to prove the biased funding practice and as soon as the Government published such examples, it was accused of blacklisting. In this case, according to their views, the „clarity of the application process” can only be ensured if the names of those appearing in already closed decisions are kept in secret, although the same organisations in other cases would go as far as judicial solutions in order that the complete documentation of the application process as well as assessment procedures be made public. The Hungarian Government strongly refuses the charge of listing and cannot accept concealment as an argument to the same extent that independent NGOs cannot take such an excuse seriously either.
Beyond the examples appearing in the media, the Government is receiving complaints on behalf of the representatives of the civil sector, proving that a part of potential beneficiaries do not consider the distribution of grants objective. However, for a responsible government standing up for a strong civil sector it is also a signal and bears importance for consideration that out of around a thousand potential civil applicants, one-third of the eligible funds is distributed among only dozens of NGOs and about a thousand organisations have never applied for funding successfully over the years. The Hungarian Government has to find answers to all these questions with the involvement of an investigation.
The Hungarian Government believes that the whole civil sector needs the civil funds of the Norway Grants. The Government is ready to make any useful compromise in order that these funds are made available for those deserving them but strongly refuses to accept the current fund operators as partners in the future. The Hungarian Government is hopeful that there exists an organisation in Hungary capable of gaining the trust of every party concerned and thus important funds for the country would not be lost owing to the prestige of an organisation unable to explain its activity.