Contributed by: Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation, Bulgaria National VAW Monitor

The non-government sector has fallen into a dangerous dependency on the Government. This is the conclusion after yet another distribution of nearly 1 million Leva from the national budget among 24 NGOs registered as organizations working in favor of the society. Among the winners are those who are traditionally closer to power. This seemed to be the best strategy for receiving allowance from the State, despite the fact that a competition was organized.

And so we, as taxpayers, want to know why the politicians preferred one organization to another. Because for 18 years of democracy in Bulgaria, a civil society failed to develop.

Social or Personal Favor?

When it comes to projects with social importance, which actually was the condition in the competition for funding of the civil organizations, there should definitely be clear criteria. The Government announced that it will fund juridical people who work in the fields of: "development of the spiritual values, civil society, health services, education, science and culture, social integration and personal realization, protection of human rights, and the environment.” The candidates had to show their capacity and the efficiency of their proposed activities.

It is obvious that every organization which needs funding to survive in these harsh times can hide behind those conveniently defined clichés.

Although the Ministers of Justice and Finance have issued "Directions for Applying” for the first time, the way the contest was conducted was obscure, as usual. The ten-member commission, comprised of the Vice-Minister of Justice as chairperson and members from different ministries, did not consider it necessary to inform the society either about the names of its members or about the stages of their work or guiding principles.

"Human organism - a unity of cells"

Unfortunately, most of the organizations with approved projects do not have web sites; therefore one cannot even acquire the slightest idea of their activities or their previous projects. The State is not interested by this fact at all. It controls only the financial reports - in what way the resources are spent. In this case, the accent of this control should fall on the social benefit. However, a report on this is absent. As a result, taxpayers yet again fund a project for making commemorative tablets for the next generations.

A Conflict of Interests? C'mon...

Among the chosen NGOs are organizations in which a vice-chairperson of the Parliament and a vice-prime minister are involved. Both the state sector and the private sector don't recognize the existence of conflict of interests. And why should they, since the State approves all the projects? The legislation encourages it and this is why there is no normative act which avoids, declares or sanctions it. Actually, the problem here is not the applicants.

According to expert data, at the moment 75% of people engaged in politics adopt the funds under the form of civil associations and even they have the impudence to register them under the address of the State's institutions in which they work. Here we reach the big legal and moral absurdity (lets not say crime) - the politicians fund themselves as citizens. Which, by the way, is the essence of existing in power according to Bulgarians’ standards.

Author: Svetlana Georgieva