Coalition “Openly about open calls”: The Ministry of Environmental Protection allocated 70 million dinars in an illegal process; we demand a reaction from the prosecutor’s office!

Belgrade, August 02, 2021

The Ministry of Environmental Protection allocated 70 million dinars in an illegal process; we demand a reaction from the prosecutor’s office!

Due to numerous irregularities in the evaluation of project proposals and the distribution of funds, as well as public allegations of corrupt practices which put its legality in question, we request that the Ministry of Environmental Protection urgently suspend the open call for civil society projects in the field of environmental protection in 2021, and announce a new call which will be fully conducted in accordance with the law.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection has published a proposed list of evaluations and rankings of projects of civil society organizations in the field of environmental protection which shows that 70 million dinars were awarded, among others, to student federations, sports associations,  and other organizations which do not meet the basic conditions of the open call for funding, and which do not have environmental protection as the main goal of their establishment and operation, nor can they prove previous experience in the implementation of projects in this area.

Based on insight into the ranking list, among the evaluated projects, there are those originating from applicants who do not meet the basic formal requirements for participation in the call, bearing in mind that these entities are not registered as citizens’ associations, foundations or endowments. On the other hand, the statutes of certain organizations, which are publicly available, clearly show that they were not established with the aim of contributing to environmental protection, which leads to the conclusion that the results of the call are formally illegal.

Apart from these indisputable and easily provable facts, the criteria on the basis of which the evaluation of projects was carried out remained unclear, and this ultimately led to very controversial results. The way the procedure was conducted resulted in the distribution of a significant amount of funds to GONGO and other organizations that were either established immediately before the competition or never dealt with the issue of environmental protection, while associations that have made significant contributions in this area have been deprived of this type of support.

The publicly stated allegations of the Bird Protection and Study Society of Serbia, one of the participants in the competition, that applicants were informally asked to participate in corrupt activities in order for their project to be supported, are additionally worrying. That is why this association announced they would file a criminal complaint against those responsible. 

“The environment in Serbia is facing serious problems that the institutions do not want to, or do not know how to solve. Basic natural resources such as clean air and water, forests, rivers, entire landscapes, habitats, diverse nature, and biological diversity are endangered. Civil society could significantly help and contribute to solving many problems. The results of this public call are shameful and show the division of party prey to eligible players, and not to relevant organizations that have references. This is a typical example of extracting money from the budget and misleading the public,” said Slobodan Knežević from the Bird Protection and Study Society of Serbia.

Te fact that this open call for financing civil society organizations was conducted in this way is another confirmation of the absence of the minimum necessary conditions for the work and activities of civil society in Serbia. Although the legal framework in this area exists, examples such as this clearly show that it is not applied in practice, which jeopardizes the financial stability of civil society organizations working in the public interest. In this way, the process of drafting the National Strategy for Creating an Enabling Environment for Civil Society Development is further made meaningless. If the state is not able to guarantee the application of its own regulations, another strategic document will certainly remain a dead letter.

For all the above reasons and irregularities, we demand from the competent institutions to launch an investigation on this issue and determine possible responsibility for corrupt behavior as soon as possible, and from the Ministry of Environmental Protection to suspend the open call and urgently announce a new one, with clearly defined criteria for the submission and evaluation of projects, in full compliance with regulations.

The Coalition “Openly about open calls” – (OKO) will conduct a detailed in-depth analysis of this open call, the results of which will be announced to the public.

The Coalition “Openly about open calls” consists of:

Association “Duga”

BIRN Serbia

Bečej Youth Association – BUM

Center Live upright

Civic initiatives

European Policy Centre (CEP)

FemPlatz

Forum for Civil Action – FORCA

Initiative for Economic and Social Rights – A11

National Youth Council of Serbia (KOMS)

National Coalition for Decentralization (NKD)

Res Publica

Team 42

Transparency Serbia