In order to maintain its credibility, the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union has decided to publish the full documentation of its projects under investigation and make it available to the public. At the same time, we do not wish to cooperate with KEHI. The current investigation launched by the authorities represents yet another step in the government's attack against Hungarian NGOs. You can read more on this here.
A few days ago, KEHI called on HCLU to deliver, among other documents, the full documentation (contracts, receipts, correspondence) of its two programs financed from the Norwegian NGO Fund. Previously, government politicians made it clear that the investigation would take place because, they claimed, Norwegian NGO support had been granted to organizations with links to left-wing parties. In such circumstances, HCLU has no doubts regarding the actual aim of the investigation, which is to threaten the remaining opposition powers and suppress the voice of civil organizations that are critical toward the government.
Maintaining that KEHI is unauthorized to conduct direct investigations, HCLU passed on its reservations regarding the legal bases of the investigation to the Office on Friday. Furthermore, and despite declaring the principles of transparency, KEHI has so far failed to disclose the identity of the person or organization who ordered the investigation, or to say how many persons paid from public funds are involved in it; HCLU has submitted a public interest data request. It is legitimate to ask KEHI to specify exactly how much this official action is costing the Hungarian taxpayers. It is also important to note that one of the two HCLU projects of interest to KEHI deals with the spending of public funds - as a result of the project, the motorway investment at Sávoly, a development that lacked any sound justification, was halted, meaning that 35 billion forints (about 115 million euros) of taxpayers’ money was saved from misappropriation.
"We account for everything in front of the public, but not in front of the government that should not be controlling anything in this regard. As a watchdog organization, we often encourage citizens to stand up for their rights. Now we are to defend ourselves against the politically motivated, unlawful attacks. We consider charges related to political bias to be absurd, since we have always criticized those in power for abusing their power and committing breaches of rights. We have done this in the past and keep doing so today,” said Stefánia Kapronczay, the executive director of HCLU.
All documentation refuting the absurd charges can be accessed by the public by clicking here.
