Court Decision Welcomed

In  the ongoing courtcase related to the tax number of Carpathian Foundation Hungary (member of the EEA/Norway NGO Fund operator consortium) the Administrative and Labour Court of Eger decided to turn to the Constitutional Court of Hungary. The Court of Eger made this decision based on our motion to establish whether the tax number suspension ordered by the Governmental Control Office (GCO) and the Government Decree on GCO' operation conflicts the Basic Law.

As it is known, upon instruction of GCO the National Tax and Customs Administration has moved to suspend the tax numbers of all conortium members operating the EEA/Norway NGO Fund. In our opinion the GCO lacked both the competence and the legal basis to audit the members of the consortium led by Ökotárs, as only the bodies designated by the Financial Mechanism Office in Brussels has the right to do so.

The GCO sanctioned the members of the consortium based on documents acquired unlawfully in an illegal procedure.  Accordingly, the tax number suspension had no legal basis either. The facts that despite our repeated inquiry the GCO has not clarified the legal basis of the procedure, did not share its findings with the consortium and conducted the investigation in a manner would end with tax suspension support the sham-like nature of the procedure.

We believe that the decision of the independent Hungarian court to turn to the Constitutional Court was a correct and fair one. We also trust that the Constitutional Court will judge that the operation and procedure of GCO is against the Basic Law.