Independent researcher
Eszter Kósa Ph.D,
curriculum: download
She is a social worker
and social policy analyst. She holds a Ph.D. degree in Social Sciences from ELTE University,
Budapest. Since
1997 she has been working on projects (planning, implementation and evaluation)
in the social field.. Since 2005, she has been a freelance consultant and
expert advisor. Her fields of interest are social policy, social inclusion, EU
support policy and transparency issues related to EU funding.
She has been the author and editor of several studies on transparency and anti-corruption issues. ("Transparency Through Awareness" - Hungarian case study, Transparency International, 2005. "Save Public Assets" - Hungarian case study, PROVIDUS, 2006. "Corruption Risks in Hungary 2007" - National Integrity System country study, Transpareny International, 2007.)
Central European University
Current
Research:
Central Programmes financed by Structural Funds in Hungary
The area of central programmes is the least known: the way of beneficiary selection, the evaluation of the project plans and the implementation and therefore while examining the transparency of Structural Funds' allocation attention should be paid also to the so called "central programs". They are being implemented under a special procedural system, not through an open competition, but they are named in the programming document (Action Plan). In Hungary in 2007-9 (first Action Plan period of the 2007-13 budgetary term) more than 300 central programmes should be implemented. They are concerning more than one third of all financial sources which are going to be distributed in a less transparent way.
- Research focuses on the following questions: Is it well arguable that all of these development projects have been set out from the open competition procedure?
- Who is responsible for the decision to label a project as "central"? Who names the final beneficiary in the planning documents? What does the whole procedure looks like? Is it transparent?
- What are the steps of quality control on the central project plans?
- Analyzing the circle of final beneficiaries: what are their common attributes?
Research History:
Eszter Kosa with Hungarian research team cooperated on researches conducted in 2005 by Transparency International in the new member states to analyze the national institutional and regulatory systems dealing with EU financial sources. Likewise in 2007 on a research in 5 new member states to examine certain concrete cases of project implementation financed from Structural Funds conducted by Providus Latvia. One of the main findings was that the area of so-called central programmes is least known while hudge sources are allocated to them without open competition.
