Should the Society Integration Foundation (SIF) be liquidated? This question has arisen on social media after the Union of Greens and Farmers submitted a proposal in the Saeima to liquidate it. Inc. looked into how SIF spends the budget money that is allocated to this organization every year; in 2025 that is 37 million euros.
An interesting picture emerges – SIF spends approximately as much on maintaining the institution itself as on the support programs, and several of the programs also seem to have a rather distant connection to social integration, cohesion, and SIF’s overall competence. The Media Support Fund, the NGO Fund, and family support programs make up a relatively small part of SIF’s expenditure items. However, the overlap of many items and areas of responsibility raises questions.
According to data available on the SIF website, an average of 85 people work in this organization, of whom 10 are social mentors, five are social workers, and one is a senior social worker. Peculiarly, all these 16 employees are the lowest paid in the entire institution. For example, social mentors receive an average gross salary of 987 euros, while the senior social worker receives 1606 euros before taxes. This is less than the office manager or secretary receives, who earns 1627 euros gross. Meanwhile, the “change agents” – there are six of them at SIF – each receive a salary from 1514 to 1682 euros, which is also more than the social workers. Earning more than those mentioned above is also, for example, the interpreter coordinator (this was the title last year; now it is simply “coordinator”), who receives 1830 euros gross per month. In total, SIF is spending 3.19 million euros this year on remuneration for 85 people, of which 731 thousand is employer VSAOI payments, employee insurance, benefits, and compensations.
However, if job titles can sometimes say relatively little about the duties performed, other budget lines of the institution should be more informative. It can be seen that the second largest administrative expenditure item is various goods and services, which cost 14.320 million euros per year. Of this, the rent of the premises in which SIF is located costs 103 thousand euros (the building in which SIF is located belongs to AS “Sadales tīkls”), while utilities (heat, water supply, electricity, etc.) cost an additional 60.5 thousand euros per year. Interestingly, the institution’s communication services cost more per year than all utilities, namely 66.2 thousand euros, or almost 780 euros per year per employee, excluding VAT. Information technology services cost another 371.7 thousand euros per year. Just when it seems that all the lines have been mentioned, one of the most interesting appears: “Other goods” with no breakdown, and this accounts for 11.512 million euros. Is this the actual support for programs? No, it is not.
Subsidies, grants, social payments, and compensations are a separate item, which in total amounts to 19.449 million euros. Although specific grant items are not listed in the budget table, they can be seen from contracts concluded in 2024 and other publications. For example, very recently, in an LSM publication on November 8 it was stated that with SIF support more than 420 thousand food packages for the needy are provided. In the Electronic Procurement System such a procurement indeed exists in the amount of 21.5 million over three years, i.e., SIF spends 7 million euros a year for this purpose. However, food packages for the poor are also provided by the Ministry of Welfare and municipalities. It is not clear why this could not be done centrally by a single institution. Also very interesting is the “Co‑financing Program”, in which projects totaling 72.6 thousand euros have been approved this year. The projects are not large, yet among them are projects such as “Implementation of Latvia’s river basin management plans to achieve good surface water status”, implemented by the Latvian Fund for Nature, and the project “Climate justice monitoring: towards climate‑neutral buildings and transport”, implemented by the association “Zaļā brīvība” (Green Freedom). In theory, such initiatives could be handled by the Ministry of Agriculture or the Ministry of Climate and Energy. Meanwhile, the association “Centrs Marta” has obtained co‑financing in this section for the project “Safety and freedom for girls and women in Uzbekistan: gender involvement of Latvian civil society in preventing gender‑based violence”.
Larger amounts of money have been allocated to non‑governmental organizations that provide support and inclusion measures for Ukrainian civilians.
Meanwhile, for example, in the “NGO Fund” program a total of 55 projects have been approved this year, while another 130 were rejected. In this program SIF divides projects into micro‑projects (from 2000 – 10 thousand euros) and macro‑projects (from 10 to 66 thousand euros). Thus, for micro‑projects contracts have been concluded for 467.8 thousand euros, and for macro‑projects – 390 thousand euros.
In turn, in the Media Support Fund (MAF) program, the supported projects amount in total to just under five million euros. Clear favorites can be seen there. For example, 606 thousand euros went to Re MEDIA (formerly Vidzemes televīzija), which belongs to Jurģis Ābele from Valmiera.
Meanwhile, in the “Family‑Friendly Workplace” program the maximum funding for one project this year is 4000 euros, while the program’s total funding is 120 thousand euros.
SIF 2025 budget:
SIF Budget 2025. by SIA Axis Baltica
Originally published at https://inc-baltics.com/sif-pasas-iestades-uzturesanai-tere-vairak-neka-mediju-nvo-un-gimenu-atbalsta-programmam-kopa/
Like
Love
Happy
Haha
Sad
