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Go ahead with the numbers
"What is your budget?" - a colleague of mine asked the president of a civil society organization 6-7 years ago. Slightly offended, the president of that organization responded: "Our organization is honest and we do not have such things"!!!
These days, I had the honour to stay with civil society organizations' representatives for day and a half, with whom, among the other things, we discussed the CSO activities, the visibility of the results, and of course, the opportunity to improve it. I was surprised by the comment of certain civic activists that the projects' budget is something that the public should not be familiar with!!!
When speculations come up regarding the work of CSO, we tend to blame the journalists. We emphasize the need of their sensibilization of the civic sector issues not taking into consideration the need to sensibilize the civic activists, especially when it comes to the question of finances.
The CSO activities are public. It need not be a secret how they had been implemented or how much they had cost. People whom they were aimed at need to know how much was invested in the activities. When the flow of information ceases, that is when the speculations begin. And it is our duty, the duty of the CSO to keep that flow going.
Luckily, the conditions have improved since several years ago. For instance, 239% of the civil society organizations presented in the sixth edition of the Address Book of CSO in Macedonia have decided to announce their budget. In the following edition of the Address Book that percentage has increased to 44%. This year, eight civic organizations announced in the daily press their financial reports and the independent auditor's opinions on them. It is another step forward towards the process of building trust between the civic sector and the public.
There is nothing frightening in publishing the project or programme budgets. There is nothing scary in publishing numbers and figure. On the contrary, they can be our aces in the times to come. So, go ahead with the numbers!
Gonce Jakovleska
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