CWN and Women Infoteka file administrative lawsuit against Gender Equality Office

GONG

26 October 2007

The Croatian Women Network and Women infoteka initiated a case in front of Administrative Court, against the Croatian Gender Equality Office, on charges of violations of the Law on Free Access to Information.

The two associations complain that the Office denied them access to information about the criteria and procedure applied in the redistribution of funds under the last public competition for support to civic society organizations.

CWN and Women�s Infoteka say that they don�t believe that they had to receive any support or that their respective proposals were the best, but insist on their right to have access to the used criteria and procedures.

- In the several months during which we tried to fulfill our legally protected rights, we noted a number of violations and neglect of existing legislation, lack of transparency of operations, illegal allocation of public funds through direct negotiations and sponsorship agreements, which provide basis for suspicions of corruption - say the two organizations.

They also asked for assistance from Jadranka Kosor, Chairwoman of Government Coordination Body for Social Activities. She, however, did little apart from sending an official request to the Gender Equality Office to present information on the case, and request from the State Administrative Bureau to give its opinion on the case.

It remains unclear how could the Gender Equality Office and the Government Coordination body fail to act in this case, in spite of clear legal obligations.