NGO Chamber Denies Communicating with Interior Ministry on NGO Register (2)

Bratislava, 11 August (TASR) - Chairman of the Chamber of Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) Marcel Zajac hopes that the changes to the NGO register as announced by the Interior Ministry on Monday will not have a similar impact as the amendment to the Act on NGOs, noting that the ministry didn't communicate with the chamber about the changes, Zajac told a press conference on Monday. Zajac said he only learnt about the changes after the ministry's press conference had ended. "The truth is that communication on the conditions under which active Slovak citizens and their organisations operate is at a standstill. All of the formal channels via which we were able to communicate with government representatives in the past are no longer functional," warned Zajac, adding that in most cases NGOs learn about new changes applicable to them only when they are already in effect. However, they lack the means to comply with them, he said, adding that "we are currently highlighting this issue in connection with the impacts of the amendment to the Act on NGOs." Zajac went on to say that linking other public administration registers with the NGO register is good news. "A fully functional register will represent a step forward not only for the people and other institutions, be it public or private, but also for NGOs themselves," he believes. In his opinion, more information also means more trust. But in the absence of communication, even when delivering good news, information may be lacking, thus ending up in ignorance which in turn leads to misunderstandings, he noted. Earlier on Monday, Interior Ministry State Secretary Michal Kalinak (Voice-SD), along with Government Proxy for Civil Society Development Simona Zacharova and head of the Interior Ministry's organisation for public sector digitisation Tomas Olexa announced changes in the register that will allow it to contain additional information on NGOs from other registers and sources. Asked whether the ministry communicated with the NGO sector about the changes, Zacharova chose not to answer directly. jrg/mcs/am