Kirienko to head body awarding Presidential grants
Presidential grants to be distributed by a coordinating committee headed by Sergei Kirienko
29.03.2017
The Presidential Grant Foundation for the Development of Civil Society is to become a single grant operator.
The distribution of Presidential grants for NGOs will be carried out by a coordination committee of 30 people, headed by the First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Sergei Kirienko, reports Kommersant. Amongst other things, the committee will have the right to involve a wide range of experts in the evaluation of NGOs’ applications.
The committee will include the heads of seven current grant operators which became founders of the Presidential Grant Foundation for the Development of Civil Society. The foundation’s general director is the national civic forum expert Ilya Chukalin.
In the near future, the president must sign a decree approving a new system for distributing grants. According to Chukalin, the president was given a raft of recommendations to reform the system. In particular, experts recommended holding two grant contests instead of four, and simplifying the application and reporting processes for NGOs.
In 2016 four contests were held after the president ordered that more than 4.5 billion roubles be distributed to NGOs carrying out socially significant work in the field of human rights and freedoms. Grants were administered by nine operators, each of which were required to develop means of assessing the effectiveness of the projects implemented.
At the beginning of 2017 it was revealed that the Presidential Administration was working on potential reforms to the Presidential grants system. The reforms are being carried out by the Presidential Administration for Public Projects.
