Translated material
Civil six
Non-governmental organizations will themselves choose recipients of presidential grants
This year the state will spend 1.25 billion rubles on the needs of civil society, and non-governmental organizations themselves will distribute these funds. The state, by allocating an amount to NGOs that is more than twice as much as last year, only outlined its priorities - most of the funds should go to social support programs for vulnerable segments of the population. This follows from the order of Vladimir Putin, which was published yesterday on the official website of the presidential administration. The press service of the head of state clarified that already in November the funds will go to the accounts of “non-profit NGOs involved in the development of civil society institutions.”It is noteworthy that this year not only the amount, but also the distribution scheme of grants has been changed - if previously the most worthy representatives of civil society were identified by the Public Chamber and approved by the presidential administration, now the above amount is immediately transferred to six NGOs selected by the same OP. And the task of these six will be “to conduct competitions and allocate grants based on their results to other non-profit, non-governmental organizations for the implementation of socially significant projects.”
The previously existing system of grant distribution indeed gave reason to doubt its objectivity. “In the past, the conditions of the competition were such that we could not even submit an application to participate in it,” complained the head of the Moscow Helsinki Group, Lyudmila Alekseeva, in a conversation with reporters. “The situation in which the selection of applicants for grants was the exclusive prerogative of the Public Chamber raised many puzzling questions,” noted Oleg Orlov, head of the human rights society Memorial, in an interview with a Vremya Novostey correspondent. Now, apparently, members of the OP, who were accused of being protectors of public structures close to them, have decided to distance themselves from the competitive selection.
The list of grant distributors approved by the president included the National Health League, headed by the famous heart surgeon Leo Bockeria, as well as the Institute of Public Design, the International Humanitarian Public Foundation “Knowledge”, the non-profit partnership “Independent Organization “In Support of Civil Society”, the National Charitable Foundation and the Foundation training of the personnel reserve “State Club”. As Mikhail Ostrovsky, deputy head of the internal policy department of the presidential administration, said yesterday, agreements on the transfer of budget funds will be concluded with them by July 15, so that in September-October they can hold competitions among NGOs.
It is clear that the money will not be distributed equally, not only among the final grant recipients, who must first justify the importance of their program, but also among authorized state agents. Judging by the way the budgets between the funds are “scheduled,” of all the public initiatives, the most important for the president is “social services for the poor and socially vulnerable categories of citizens”—400 million rubles will be provided to the National Charitable Foundation for these purposes. This position, by the way, fits well within the framework of the official position of the Russian leadership on the human rights situation in the country. In the annual reports of Human Rights Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin, complaints about social problems always come first, and even this year, in a conversation with Vladimir Putin, the ombudsman named the growing disproportion between rich and poor as the main problem. Directly, “protection of human rights and freedoms” and “legal education of the population” were in penultimate place. The non-profit partnership “Independent Organization “In Support of Civil Society”, which is responsible for this area, will have to distribute grants in the amount of 136 million rubles. Less is allocated only to monitoring the situation with civil society.
270 million rubles were promised for the implementation of projects in the field of education, art and culture, 150 million for environmental initiatives and events promoting a healthy lifestyle. It is noteworthy that initiatives involving active work with young people received a special line. Judging by the fact that another 230 million rubles will be allocated for projects of youth movements and organizations to the State Club Personnel Reserve Training Fund, whose president is State Duma deputy from United Russia Sergei Shishkarev, it can be assumed that in the already rich new colors will appear in the palette of youth NGOs loyal to the authorities.
In addition, a small part of presidential grants is 4.2 million rubles. -- will be transferred by the state directly to 14 regional NGOs. The direct allocation of presidential grants to trade unions and student associations in Chechnya is quite understandable. However, the appearance of the Vologda branch of the Academy of Security, Defense and Law Enforcement in the list of benefited organizations cannot but raise questions - this structure will receive 393 thousand rubles, which are planned to be spent “on the revival of the spiritual traditions of society.” The nature of this organization is evidenced by the presence in its structure of a security department in the field of culture and spiritual education, which presents to the population examples of high art: a gallery of portraits of President Putin, Patriarch Alexy II, Jesus Christ and the head of the Academy of Security Problems, Viktor Shevchenko.
Representatives of the presidential administration predict that the number of applications for government grants will double compared to last year. If in 2006 5 thousand non-governmental organizations applied for the money and as a result the money was given to one and a half thousand, now at least 10 thousand applications will be submitted. However, the leaders of many Russian NGOs, including the most famous ones, are skeptical, suggesting that this time too they will be ignored by the state. “And this year I doubt that independent non-governmental organizations such as the Moscow Helsinki Group and Memorial will receive anything,” MHG Chairman Lyudmila Alekseeva told Interfax. Nevertheless, Memorial will try to receive a presidential grant “if the conditions of the competition allow it.” “If there were clear and distinct criteria for competitive selection, then the participation of NGOs in determining grant recipients could only be welcomed,” Memorial director Oleg Orlov shared his opinion with Vremya Novostei. But for this, according to the human rights activist, it is necessary to participate in the process of “a specific group of experts who have no interest or conflict of interest and who could make an unbiased decision.”