Civil society organisations representing Kosovo’s Serb minority have urged the government to annul a decision disbursing 500,000 euros in funding to organisations dealing with minority communities after suspicions were raised last week over how the beneficiaries were picked.

The CSOs argue that the allocation of funds, published on July 10 on the website of the Office of the Prime Minister, violated procedural and administrative rules and the “obligations of institutions to respect the rights of non-majority communities”.

“We call on the Government of Kosovo to annul the results of this Public Call and announce a new one, which will demonstrate the ability to indiscriminately respect the law and citizens from non-majority communities whose rights are often not respected,” 11 organisations said in a statement on Saturday.

The office of Prime Minister Albin Kurti did not respond to a request for comment.

Doubts about the results of the call grew on August 1 when Elizabeth Gowing, an adviser to Kurti on minority issues, announced she had ceased cooperation with the Office for Community Affairs within Kurti’s office after learning about the results.

Two days later, Gowing clarified that she would continue to serve as adviser, but would not work anymore with the office that allocated the money.

“I have been informed about the results of assessment after they were published on the PM Office’s website,” Gowing said in comments written in Albanian on Facebook. “There I have found only a few organisations known for dealing with communities’ affairs and when I checked the NGO public registry, I found out that only three of them are community-based, according to information on their statutes.”

Gowing said that she took her decision after learning that the call could not be annulled.

“I cannot maintain my integrity and protect the decision of the commission on allocating this money.”