Csepreghy: Hungarian Govt Obliged To Oversee Norway Grants Payments
- 29 May 2014 3:00 AM
The Hungarians government is obliged to oversee the disbursements of funds to Hungary under the EEA and Norway Grants scheme, state secretary Nándor Csepreghy said, reacting to a Wednesday statement by the Ökotárs foundation, which said that the director of the Brussels-based Financial Mechanism Office, the decisionmaking authority for the EEA Grants, had told cabinet chief János Lázár that Hungarian government bodies had no control rights over NGO programmes within the Norway Grants scheme.
Csepreghy said that considering that all Hungarian citizens are eligible for the grants, it is in the public interest to ensure that the funding is utilised in the interest of all citizens.
Commenting on an audit by the Kehi government control office, he said “if you’ve got nothing to hide, you’ve got nothing to fear.”
The Norwegian Foreign Ministry on May 9 suspended further disbursements of funds to Hungary, arguing that the Hungarian government had “moved the implementation and monitoring of the Grants scheme out of the central government administration. This is in breach of the agreements that have been entered into,” the ministry said.
Csepreghy said the Norwegian funding for NGOs is currently transferred through the ökotárs Foundation which appears to be an NGO but in reality is a satellite organisation of the small opposition LMP.
Source www.hungarymatters.hu
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