Taking money from the pockets of taxpayers and dividing it among certain groups is the priority of the current government. As we know, pensioners are the last on their list, and the first on their list are non-governmental organisations, among which they will once again distribute 600,000 euros. The Ministry of Culture has published a (rather creative) public tender “to strengthen the supportive environment in culture, which will support the implementation of supportive projects in 2024 and 2025”.
The Ministry of Culture has launched a public tender for which they have “come up with a rather creative title”. It seems that they ran out of rational reasons to justify taking money out of taxpayers’ pockets, so they came up with a more creative idea. The public tender is aimed at “strengthening the supportive environment in culture, which will support the implementation of support projects in 2024 and 2025”. The call is open until the 9th of October 2023, and the Ministry will allocate a total of 600,000 euros over two years to the selected applicants.
The Golob government continues to reward NGOs. This time in the form of a public tender for a purpose that seems anything but sensible and understandable, especially if we mention what is most important at the moment. The Golob government is introducing Solidarity Saturdays, which are actually just a new tax. It is looking for ways to impose new taxes and is indirectly asking people to pay for the post-flood rehabilitation, while at the same time launching another public tender worth 600,000 euros, which will (once again) be earmarked for NGOs.
There is enough money, it is just going into other pockets
The Ministry of Culture’s website states that “the call responds to a long-standing need in the cultural sector for the systemic development of support environment activities. In this sense, it is a follow-up to the pilot call launched earlier this year.” They explained that the call is divided into four strands and that “in accordance with the Non-Governmental Organisations Act, they have the possibility to apply for a thematic network,” and, it is also worth pointing out that “the call allows for up to 100% co-financing of projects,” from which it can be concluded that the government actually has enough money – for NGOs.
This tender is truly contrary to all logic and common sense, as the leader of the opposition, Janez Janša, also wanted to point out with the message posted on social media X – “Seriously, the government of the Republic of Slovenia?”
The reactions to the distribution of money to selected NGOs on social networks have been extremely negative, and people are losing patience with the way the Golob government is handling the state money. “Remember that the Minister of this portfolio is Asta Vrečko. She’s the one who is the new coordinator of the Left party (Levica) … This is what they think it means to take money from every possible part of the budget for people affected by floods … Luka Mesec on the show Tarča (Target) said that there is no more money to be taken… #big spenders,” commented a Twitter user, while a second post read: “What the fuck????? Can you not wait with such unnecessary projects until after the flood damage is rehabilitated???” Just how incomprehensible and nonsensical the tender’s description actually is is also shown by the fact that one Twitter user also joked on this account: “Support projects for a supportive environment to implement support projects to support supporters….”
This is not the first “creative” call for NGO funding
This is just the latest in a series of ways to distribute money among NGOs. Just remember the public tender published in March this year, when the Ministry of Public Administration launched a tender to strengthen active citizenship and empower NGOs, which, according to a note on the government portal, were the most affected during the pandemic. The value of the funds put up for tender was a staggering 10,645,000 euros. The reason for the creation of the public tender at the time, according to the NGOs, was “undemocratic practices during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the purpose of the tender is to empower citizens with the knowledge and competencies to prevent such practices from happening again.” Of course, they once again want to portray NGOs as victims of the previous government – “victims” who, unlike the working population, had time to pace the streets in the middle of the work week while the rest of us were actually earning our money.
T.B.
