Challenges in Subsidy and Grants Allocation by the Ministry of Culture, Youth, and Sports and Digitalization as a Tool for Increasing Efficiency

26/08/2024

Today, GAP Institute, Group for Legal and Political Studies (GLPS), and Institute for Development Policy (INDEP), under the “Support to civil society to increase public oversight and accountability of Kosovo public institutions” project, supported by the British Embassy in Kosovo, held a press conference to present the findings of the report titled “Challenges in Subsidy and Grants Allocation by the Ministry of Culture, Youth, and Sports and Digitalization as a Tool for Increasing Efficiency .”

This report addresses the importance of digitalizing the grant and subsidy allocation processes of the Ministry of Culture, Youth, and Sports (MCYS).

The MCYS is one of the ministries with the largest budgets allocated for grants and subsidies. The process of distributing these funds—from the announcement of calls to the completion of projects—has faced various challenges over the years. These challenges have impacted the efficiency and effectiveness of subsidies in achieving the strategic objectives of the MCYS.

The report analyzed 51 calls for applications opened by the MCYS over a three-year period (2021–2023). Based on these data and the experiences of applicants/beneficiaries, several challenges in the current grant and subsidy allocation process were identified. The report finds that the average time for evaluating applicants, from the closure of calls to the announcement of winners, is 48.8 working days. Legally, this process is required to be completed within 15 days. Other identified challenges include: superficial and overly general call objectives, mismatches between beneficiary characteristics and call criteria, lack of transparency during evaluation processes, and more.

During the implementation and monitoring phase of beneficiary projects, the main problems include delays in signing contracts—which subsequently affect project realization—and a lack of project monitoring due to insufficient human resources at the MCYS.

Through a digital platform, transparency and accountability in the subsidy allocation processes would improve, making these processes more efficient and effective while saving time and financial resources. Applicants would upload all documents online, eliminating application costs, and the MCYS would conduct more efficient evaluations by having all documents digitally available in one place. Additionally, a history for all applicants would be created, simplifying application procedures for future calls. Considering the challenges and lack of human capacity to monitor project implementation, digitalization would ease the monitoring process, allowing project activities to be documented through photos/videos and uploaded to the system without requiring extensive field monitoring.

Please click here to read the full report. 

 

The Project “Support to civil society to increase public oversight and accountability of Kosovo public institutions” is funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office through the British Embassy in Pristina.

The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the GAP Institute (GAP), Group for legal and Political Studies (GLPS) and Institute for Development Policy (INDEP), and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.