In the past year, non-governmental organizations in Kosovo received €16,029,756 from the public institutions in Kosovo (Assembly, Presidency, Office of the Prime Minister and the Ministries, independent agencies and municipalities); 594 NGOs received financial support from the Ministries, 813 from municipal budgets, 18 from agencies – data from „The Report on Public Financial Support for Non-Governmental Organizations by the Institutions of the Republic of Kosovo in 2017“ has revealed. The report was made by the Office of Good Governance in the Office of the Kosovo Prime Minister. We report on sections of this report.
The report stated that the amount of over €16,000,000 was „estimated, taking into account that, in some cases, certain organizations and concrete projects could be presented in this report, although they are not non-governmental organizations.“
However, the exact total amount of funds received by NGOs from central institutions is not specified, instead it is listed by the ministries and individually by the organizations.
Most NGOs are, on the other hand, „user organizations“ of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, which supported as many as 365 organizations, the Office of the Prime Minister (77), the Ministry of Agriculture (75), the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (45) and the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education.
In 2017, 37 municipalities in Kosovo transferred a total amount of 6,052,311 EUR to the accounts of non-governmental organizations, the data from the same report shows, in which the names of organizations which received the monetary support, sorted by the municipalities, are listed.
When it comes to those in the North – the municipality of North Mitrovica supported 14 non-governmental organizations, Zvecan and Leposavic 3 NGOs each, while the report stated that Zubin Potok supported only one – „Community Development Fund“.
The largest sum of money in the municipality of North Mitrovica was transferred to, as it is stated in the report, „VERI AZHR“, in the amount of 223,714.34 euros.
The report does not state which NGO specifically was involved. However, according to the data from the Audit Report of the same municipality for 2017, this sum of money was transferred to the account of the Regional Development Agency – North for the Support and Development of Small and Medium Enterprises.
„The transfer of funds before the completion of the services“ was criticized in the audit report of North Mitrovica.
„Regional Development Agency has signed contracts with 55 project beneficiaries to a total amount of 223,714 EUR. Out of this amount, 80% is required to be paid at the time of approval, and the rest after the end of the project by the user. Despite the above-mentioned conditions, the RDA requested the full payment. After which, the municipality paid the full amount,“ the auditor’s report stated.
It was envisaged for the funds to be provided from the Development Fund.
In the municipality of Zvecan, the NGO „Santa Maria“ was supported by the largest amount, with €59,733.00.
In the municipality of Leposavic, the largest amount was transferred to „VERI AZHR“ – €19,649.25.
The only payment by the municipality of Zubin Potok was for the „Community Development Fund“ – the amount €743.33.
Read more about which NGOs the other municipalities supported in the Kosovo government report in Annex 2, „List of beneficiaries in the area of public financial support in municipalities for 2017.“
The report also stated that „there are no public records on the monitoring of funded projects and programs of non-governmental organizations“:
„Unlike last year, a significant improvement is noticeable in the data on project designs and funded activities and projects among the reporting institutions. However, much remains to be done and there is room for the improvement of the reports.“
„Public institutions, including ministries, municipalities and independent agencies, should
increase transparency in terms of public financial support by preparing and publishing
regular annual reports on the public financial support of the NGOs on their websites,“ it is also stated.
Preuzimanje i objavljivanje tekstova sa portala KoSSev nije dozvoljeno bez navođenja izvora. Hvala na poštovanju etike novinarske profesije.