Grant Law will solve conflicts between NGOs, private sector and Government

The Grant Law will solve misunderstandings between NGOs, the private sector and the Government, but before its implementation, the NGOs impact on society must be evaluated. This opinion was voiced by Anatol Bucatca, representative of the Agency for Rural Development Center, at the second meeting of the Civil Society Press Club, Info-Prim Neo reports. “We are three communities: NGOs, the private sector and the Government, and sometimes we have arguments. A Grant Law will solve all these conflicts, but until it is voted, I’ll agree that many of our organization don’t deserve being called NGOs. They appear in certain moments, for a certain period and only 20% of them do their job”, said Anatol Bucatca. According to him, before the Law is adopted, the NGOs impact on society must be evaluated in order to find out how money is managed and who deserves to be called an NGO. Bucatca mentioned that the Grant Law will solve many issues, but only if it formulates clear financing criteria for the private, governmental and civic sectors. The Law will sort NGOs with a bad reputation and will impose the transparency of funds management. This should make businessmen and public authorities more receptive to financing requests from NGOs, thinks Anatol Bucatca. Meanwhile, Galina Spac, head of the Direct Taxes Department within the State Fiscal Inspectorate, mentioned that state authorities developed a draft law to change taxation and facility obtaining procedures for NGOs. “Currently, there are legal stipulations regulating the taxation of NGOs. We’ve developed project that radically changes the method of taxation of NGOs and that simplifies the procedure of obtaining facilitations. Until now, facilitations were given through special decisions. According to our proposal, NGOs will have to simply submit a request to the fiscal authority to obtain a facilitation”, declared Galina Spac. According to the fiscal authority representatives, the proposal was published on the website of the Ministry of Finances and all NGOs were informed about it. If implemented, it will come to effect next year. The Grant Law stipulates granting of public funds for non-profit activities of general interest. The activity of the Civil Society Press Club is financed by USAID within AED's Strengthening Civil Society in Moldova Program.