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Bertalan Tóth, Member of Parliament, has submitted a request for data of public interest to the Mathias Corvinus Collegium Foundation (MCC), asking for the release of a large amount of data on the operation and management of the Foundation, going back over many years. The Foundation complied with the request for 860 pages of data without delay, as it performs a public task in accordance with the relevant legislation and handles data of public interest. In addition, the organization is making changes on its website to make data of public interest more easily accessible to all.
Data are easily searchable and quickly accessible for everyone
The request for data of public interest sent by Bertalan Tóth, the President of the Hungarian Socialist Party to the MCC covers a significant amount of documents, going back over several years. Nevertheless, the organization has provided the MP with the set of data requested and defined by law as soon as possible. MCC is a public interest trust which, by decision of the Parliament, performs a public task in the field of talent development. Therefore, the Board of Trustees governing the MCC Foundation considers it of the utmost importance to store, manage and ensure the availability of data of public interest generated in connection with its activities in a transparent manner.
With this in mind, several developments are underway to make this set of data even more easily searchable and quickly accessible to everyone, including via the institution's website.
Expanding tasks, high quality talent nurturing
MCC's talent nurturing activities of public interest include tuition-free training programs for the most talented youth in Hungary and abroad. The 25-year-old institution has reached a new level in 2020, making its training courses available in seventeen settlements in 2021 and it will be expanded to thirty-five in the next five years, from elementary school to university and beyond. Following the professional and infrastructural developments, 3,500 elementary school students, 4,000 high school students, 1,500 university students and 500 other young people, i.e. nearly 10,000 young Hungarians, will be able to participate in the institution's programs of international standards.
Ensuring transparency remains an objective
Since talent development as a goal is of outstanding public interest, MCC maintains that the assets provided by the Hungarian state to it for the realization of a public task must be managed in accordance with the publicity requirements for the use of public funds. Therefore, the Foundation has disclosed, is disclosing and will continue to disclose all information, data and other knowledge relating to its operations in accordance with the relevant legal provisions.
The SAO rated MCC's management as outstandingly good
MCC's management was also examined by the State Audit Office of Hungary. In its report issued on 9 July 2020, it rated MCC as outstandingly good compared to other foundations. According to the report, during the period under review, the Foundation ensured the basic conditions for sound financial management, properly fulfilled its reporting obligations and kept separate records for grants, and overall, it concluded that its management was sound, and that the transparency and accountability of its funding were ensured.
