Cigelj made the announcement at a session of the parliamentary Committee on Human and National Minority Rights where representatives of NGOs warned that there were no clear criteria for the allocation of public funds to NGOs.
The committee urged the government to submit a draft code of positive practice and standards for the allocation of budgetary money to NGOs, to define mechanisms on the basis of which objections to allocation procedures would be considered, and to propose amendments to the Non-Governmental Organisations Act by defining criteria for deciding which organisations and projects are of common good.
The committee requested that the National Foundation introduce additional mechanisms for the prevention of conflict of interest, adopt clear criteria for the evaluation of organisations and projects, explain in greater detail its decisions to allocate or not to allocate funds, and ensure the publication of results of public tenders.