Administration Bodies Increase Implementation of Freedom of Access to Information Laws
This is the best response rate since September 2004, when TIC started submitting requests to public administration bodies to test the implementation of the Law on Free Access to Information. In 2004, 49.57 percent of the institutions sent their responses, and the number for 2005 was 57.5 percent. A total of 200 requests were submitted: 50 to government ministries, 50 to county administration, 50 to municipal administration and 50 to the judiciary. Government ministries had the highest rates of response at 96 percent, 78 percent of which were submitted within the legal deadline. The lowest rate of response were seen with municipal institutions, at 50 percent, while county administration and the judiciary recorded increase in their rate of response (58 and 78 percent respectively. The judiciaries were asked to provide information on resolved cases of corruption, while executive bodies were asked about various aspects of implementation of the Law on Free Access to Information. These were very simple questions that every public administration body, if fully implementing the Law, should have answered immediately. TIC is worried about the low rate of response from municipal and county administration, which is hard to explain having in mind the benign nature of the questions asked. In addition to better implementation, the Law on Free Access to Information should be amended and changed in order to eliminate several weak points. The chief deficiencies of the Law are the omission of the proportionality and public interest tests. The first defines the possibilities, restrictions and reservations, while the latter defines the possibility and procedures to classify information. |
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