PM Fico: Constitutional Court Protecting NGOs from Scrutiny

Bratislava, 18 February (TASR) - The Constitutional Court, through its ruling declaring the amendment to the law on non-profit organisations unconstitutional, is protecting NGOs from oversight, said Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) after Wednesday's cabinet session. Therefore, the government will use available tools to provide proper control, he added. "The greatest danger to this country is posed by non-governmental organisations that carry out political activities similar to those of political parties, yet without any public oversight and without any political responsibility. I think that we have the right to look into this," stated the prime minister. He added that by the end of October, the head of the Government Office, Juraj Gedra, is to prepare a comprehensive report based on inspections of NGOs. According to Fico, non-governmental organisations currently receive approximately €400 million annually. Of this amount, €300 million comes from various grants, and around a quarter from 2-percent income-tax allocations. He underlined that oversight of their financial management is therefore justified. State authorities under the Interior Ministry, the Finance Ministry and the Labour Ministry, as well as other institutions, are to carry out ongoing inspections of non-governmental non-profit organisations. They will focus primarily on compliance with the legal conditions governing their activities, according to a measure approved by the government on Wednesday. The cabinet responded in this way to a decision by the Constitutional Court which, according to the government, blocked an increase in NGO transparency. Last year, the Constitutional Court ruled that the amendment to the law on non-profit organisations providing generally beneficial services was in conflict with the Slovak Constitution and the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. According to the court, the legislation contravened constitutional provisions concerning fundamental human rights and freedoms as well as political rights. The legislation had introduced, for example, the obligation for NGOs to prepare a transparency report and to disclose information on the management of public funds. mf/df