ONG should more communicate with potential donors and society: experts

The NGOs do not communicate with potential donors, and this makes the sector not be transparent enough. The opinion was voiced Friday at the Public Policies Forum “Goo Governance and NGOs' Transparency – Prospects and Positive Practical Ways,” Info-Prim Neo reports. Sorin Mereacre, the director of the Moldovan office of the Eurasia Foundation, opines the NGOs and the donors do not know one another well enough and do not trust one another, a reason why the latter ones grant funds only for short-term projects. “As a rule, the NGOs see the donors as money bags, as banks, and not as partners, which could contribute to develop the project,” he said. According to Anti-Corruption Alliance secretary Mircea Esanu, “a pile of studies show that we're not so good in terms of transparency, and this has a word to say over the society's view about NGOs.” He says “there is no evidence about some financial irregularities, though the opinion polls also point out such aspects.” As long as there is no internal checking system, it's hard to say there are such moments, but the donors watch this issue, since it's about the money they grant,” Esanu said. He says this feeling is generated by the fact that many NGOs do not publicize their financial reports, although they compile them. Doina Munteanu, a representative of the UN Development Program (UNDP), said that “according to a study, the NGOs assess themselves as very well developed and transparent.” “46% of the organizations consider the sector to have reached a high level of development, and only 5.6% say the transparency is low,” she said. Angela Vacaru, a trainer with the Organizational Training and Consulting Center “CICO”, explains the NGOs' non-transparency by their depending much on donors: “They communicate only with the donors directly involved in some particular project. Perhaps not all the NGOs realize the advantage transparency could bring them.” Vacaru has added “people do not know what an NGO means.” “Society's perceives the NGOs not exactly positively since Moldova is a former Soviet country lacking history in this respect. We're as an island,” she said.