In order to improve the organizational issues of the grant funding mechanism, the Ministry of Information and Social Development has made changes to the existing rules for grants for non-governmental organizations, zakon.kz reports.

The draft regulation was developed jointly with civil society experts.

The new changes are aimed at improving the competitive procedures for the distribution of state grants among NGOs. Particular attention was paid to the transparency and efficiency of grant projects. In particular, the procedure for forming and maintaining a register of experts is regulated. According to the new rules, the register of experts is formed for a period of 1 year and is publicly available. The composition of the expert commission will be selected at random from the Register.

According to the developers, representatives of NGOs applying for grants will also be sent to the expert commission, but will lose the right to vote in case of a conflict of interest. In addition, the meetings of the expert commissions will be posted on the website and social networks of the Operator in the field of grant funding.

Another innovation is to ensure the transparency of the process of forming the topics of grant projects. The public discussion will be held on the Internet resources of government agencies. Citizens and NGOs can express their views. Topics for future grants will be planned based on these discussions.

The Rules also define monitoring procedures with a mechanism for evaluating the effectiveness of grant projects, and regulate the timing of tenders. If earlier the term of tender procedures was up to 79 days, according to the new rules the terms were reduced by 2 times – to 40 days. Also, the deadline for submission of applications is 20 (twenty) working days, the deadline for re-announcement of the tender is 10 (ten) working days.

The rules also regulate the procedures for awarding non-governmental grants.

The full text of the changes to the document can be found at the following link