The authorities of Kyrgyzstan want to fund non-profit organisations in order to counter published “critical materials.”
This April, the Cabinet of Ministers of Kyrgyzstan published on its website the draft decree on giving public grants to non-profit organisations and other civil society institutes.
According to the draft decree, the funds will be provided on a competitive basis, and the total amount of small grants would be 100 million som (1,179,250 dollars). The funds will be transferred to a special account operated by the Presidential Administration. The grant board will decide recipients of grants and it will consist of representatives of the presidential administration, General Prosecutor’s Office, Audit Chamber, various ministries and civil society.
The maximum grant per one project should not exceed 3 million som (37,495 dollars), and they are intended to support science, education and awareness, preservation of the historical memory, environmental control, animal protection, as well as interethnic and interreligious concord, protection of human and citizen rights and freedoms (including the rights of convicted and arrested persons), or development of public diplomacy and support of fellow nationals.
As the explanation to the initiative, authors of the document indicated that the actions of the president and cabinet of ministers have been criticised too much recently. Moreover, non-profit organisations that carry out various studies and disseminate their critical outcomes have been funded even more. Therefore, initiators want to protect national interests by funding non-profit organisations. It is expected that money recipients would be acting as opposed to published “critical materials” to avoid one-sided data submission.
The initiative has caused mixed public response. Lawyers of Adilet legal clinic analysed the draft decree and found that “the document was unfinished, and there were no transparency procedures when admitting non-profit organisations to competition.” Representatives of non-profit organisations in their message also pointed at some discrepancies in the draft decree and said that this initiative can divide the civil sector into those who are loyal and disloyal to the actions of the authorities.
After a storm of criticism, it became known that the decision of funding non-governmental organisations from the budget would be revised to take public opinion into account. According to the presidential office, all submitted proposals and comments are being analysed and discussed now. According to preliminary information, this process will last until early June. Afterwards, the future of the document will be determined.
Too many other risks
According to the experts, the revocation of original document was a positive measure taken by the authorities. However, the finalised document is expected in June and it could involve too many other risks in addition to a possible division into good and bad.
According to political analyst Medet Tyulegenov, a potential adverse consequence could be the strengthened peanut politics, whereas the state will lose the need to conduct a dialogue with the society.
“The authorities will show that they have a direct communication with citizens that support them,” the expert said. “And the need to interact with the society not on the basis of praise but on more real facts can just become irrelevant.”
Moreover, according to Tyulegenov, Kyrgyzstan has a law on social service procurement.
“And one of economic aspects can be the fact that the money intended for the social service procurement would be in fact redirected to this propaganda imitative,” the political analyst said. “Respectively, it won’t be enough for more correct and useful projects that could be implemented by non-profit organisations jointly with state bodies.”
In turn, Nurbek Sydykov, lawyer of Institute Media Policy, said that an independent board should allocate the grants. According to him, too many representatives of state bodies in the board could prove the dependence of the board on managerial decisions.
Political analyst Emil Dzhuraev said that in general the idea of governmental support of non-governmental and non-profit organisations is quite interesting, but a few moments should be taken into account.
“There should be support, but it should not dictate to money beneficiaries how to behave, position themselves, what to think and say,” Dzhuraev said. “However, there are few successful examples, so the idea is unlikely to thrive in the future.”
According to the expert, the state should direct the funds to other, more useful spheres for the society. According to Dzhuraev, those could be initiatives in the field of sports, culture, arts, creative work, etc.
“In this economic situation, it’s better to spend budget money on understandable and known state functions, instead of creating such suspicious expenditure items,” the political analyst said.
External initiatives
According to director of the Centre for Political and Legal Studies Tamerlan Ibraimov, the overall situation with non-profit organisations in Kyrgyzstan is contradictory because the attitude of the state towards non-profit organisations is changing from collaboration to direct pressure. According to him, the current authorities led by Sadyr Zhaparov have announced their commitment to the democratic principles and the freedom of speech.
“There are many examples of cooperation between the authorities and non-profit organisations,” the expert said. “However, there are also negative examples.”
In summer 2021, the legislation was amended to bind non-profit organisations to submit additional financial statements. Every year, non-profit organisations should submit consolidated information on their sources of financing, indicate what the money is spent for, and provide information about their assets purchased, used and assigned to the website of the authorised tax office. If they fail to submit reports, a tax office may go to court to demand compulsory winding-up of the organisation.
In February 2022, Member of Parliament Nadira Narmatova called on her colleagues to adopt the draft law on “foreign agents.”
“As long as we do not give some organisation the status of a foreign agent, there will be no peace. A number of NGOs financed from abroad do not allow us to develop and want to be in power themselves,” the MP said.
What she meant by the status of a “foreign agent” is not reported.
The civil society took these measures as the departure from the principles of democracy and pressure on dissenting organisations.
In his comment to CABAR.asia Tamerlan Ibraimov said that these situations are the continuation of the story when some officials go on a leash of their foreign colleagues and want to copy their experience in working with non-profit organisations. The issue is, according to him, about Russia. The law on foreign agents is known to be enforced there for a long time and non-profit organisations are being under strict control of state authorities.
According to Ibraimov, the attempts to introduce additional statements were also made with previous presidents, but the society has always convinced the authorities of giving up on such attempts. They failed this time, too.
“Therefore, we should hope that the positive cooperation between the authorities and the society will have more practical examples, after all,” the expert said and added that it should not be otherwise in Kyrgyzstan because the gap between the society and the authorities has always resulted in dire consequences.
Lawyer and civil activist Aibek Askarbekov said that many non-profit organisations are now undergoing a difficult period. According to him, they have to carry out monitoring extensively, while the introduction of a variety of ill-considered novelties will give the authorities more levers of pressure on non-profit organisations.
“Of course, they won’t directly hinder their statutory activities, but they can create certain difficulties in their operations,” the activist said.
According to Askarbekov, the authorities and the civil sector should keep balance in their relations. To this end, the society should be active and jointly respond to all the challenges. The state should open as much as possible and strive for the public dialogue.
Advocacy
According to political analyst Medet Tyulegenov, the authorities suggesting to fund non-profit organisations are trying to have more “public voices” heard in political agencies that allegedly advocate for the state.
“In other words, it would be a good advocacy for the authorities,” the expert said.
In turn, Tolekan Ismailova, head of human rights movement “Bir Duino Kyrgyzstan”, said that such initiatives of the authorities should not be introduced to the civil society without preliminary consultations and examinations.
“It could lead to the fact that the government could lose confidence of citizens, which is very dangerous especially given new risks, crises and disasters,” Ismailova said.
Nurbek Sydykov, lawyer of Institute Media Policy, said that draft law authors have planned to counterbalance the criticism of the authorities. According to him, this approach is unacceptable.
“Constructive criticism in a democratic society is a must. The state financing of non-profit organisations should not aim to show how well the authorities work,” the lawyer said.
According to him, when state bodies perform their duties in a quality manner, the people will directly feel these improvements. Hence, the authorities won’t be required to promote their activities. Therefore, according to Sydykov, the main goal of the project should be to assist in promotion and protection of human rights and freedoms and development of society in general.