Will the Integration Fund be 'dismantled piece by piece'?

Culture Minister Nauris Puntulis (National Alliance) indicated in a live broadcast on Latvian TV that the fate of the Society Integration Fund (SIF) will be decided very soon. It is clear that the Fund, in its current form, will cease to exist! The functional audit, which was initiated under the previous government, is nearing completion. "The audit of SIF has proposed four scenarios for the future, including the liquidation of the fund. On Monday, I will receive a report from the working group on the fund's development scenarios, which will be submitted for government assessment within the week," the head of the Ministry of Culture reported. In his opinion, SIF should primarily be depoliticized and possibly rebranded, as the term 'integration' does not encompass the content that the Fund deals with. "Perhaps some functions should be transferred. For example, the Media Support Fund is not the place where political decisions should be made, so it could be transferred to the National Council for Electronic Media; other functions could be handed over to the State Chancellery, which is less political," Puntulis noted. "The SIF model is actually not working, and this does not depend on any particular convocation of the Saeima." Moreover, the minister is convinced that oversight of the implementation of SIF projects should be improved.