CRPE’s position on the funding programme for civil society implemented by the General Secretariat of the Government
CRPE regrets the way in which public authorities continue to approach their relationship with civil society, including through funding programmes dedicated to the sector. The call for proposals for strategic projects on developments and transformations in the civic space in the context of current challenges, launched by the General Secretariat of the Government (GSG), is yet another example of a lack of professionalism and understanding of how a funding programme intended for civil society organisations should be designed and implemented.
Opaque call for proposals led by the General Secretariat of the Government
The call, which aims to fund strategic projects dedicated to the civic space, was published with virtually no public notice on 5 June, with an initial deadline of 12 June. One week to prepare strategic projects is a completely unreasonable timeframe. It was only on 11 June that the deadline was extended by another week, until 19 June. The call was accompanied by no public communication or dialogue with the NGO sector and was published exclusively in the announcements section of the GSG’s website, without being promoted even through its own communication channels, such as Facebook or Instagram.
The results were announced on 13 July, in the same opaque manner: through an announcement published on the GSG website, without any other institutional communication. The information reached the public sphere mainly through a post by the Secretary General of the Government, Dan Reșitnec, who welcomed the completion of the selection process.
It is not our role to assess the organisations declared winners. However, we raise serious questions about the capacity of some recently established organisations, without relevant experience or public visibility, to coordinate strategic projects aimed at strengthening the civic space. Equally concerning is the fact that the beneficiaries include organisations about which media investigations and analyses have pointed to links with political circles, including actors associated with extremist or conspiratorial discourse.
Improve transparency and quality of the calls
We welcome the fact that the GSG published the evaluation criteria and selection procedure following public criticism. Nevertheless, even when assessed against the published criteria, it is difficult to understand how some of the winning projects achieved the required scores. The criteria place emphasis on the experience of the organisation and implementation team, yet the application form was so brief that it is unclear how the GSG Evaluation Committee could have carried out a meaningful assessment of the applications. Moreover, many of the criteria are redundant, vaguely formulated and lack indicators that would allow for a genuine assessment.
We call on the General Secretariat of the Government to pay close attention to the project contracting stage and to initiate a genuine transparency process. This should include the public disclosure, prominently both on the institution’s website and through its social media channels, of the organisations with which contracts will be signed, their monitoring, as well as the publication, at the end of implementation, of a report on the funding awarded.
For any future edition of this programme, CRPE considers it necessary to substantially revise the evaluation criteria, implementation timeline and the way the call is promoted, so that the competition is genuine, open and fair.
Civic space in Romania
The evolution of the civic space is an important issue, and Romania has numerous organisations with successful experience in managing competitive grants at European level. This expertise can represent a valuable resource for building an authentic dialogue between public authorities and civil society, provided that such programmes are organised transparently, professionally and with respect for the principles of open competition. We nevertheless wish all the winning organisations success, as a healthy democracy needs a genuine and strong civil society.