Implementation of Law Good, Needs Improvements
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The Foundation Open Society Institute Macedonia (FOSIM) and the Commission for Protection of Right of Free Access to Information presented the experiences, challenges, dilemmas and achievements of the first five months of implementation of the Law on Free Access to Information.
The Commission presented information on its past activities, while FOSIM informed the public about the results of the one year monitoring of the implementation of the Law. The monitoring was conducted by 13 NGOs in 31 municipality in Macedonia. According to FOSIM, the implementation has improved since September 1, the official date of entry into force of the Law. Compared to the situation before that date, when one in three requests for information were met, today every other request is answered (57.78%) in a timely and correct fashion. FOSIM is also satisfied with the work of the Commission as a body that decides on complaints and disputes regarding requests for information. 41 of the 44 complaints submitted to the Commission for review were answered positively, thus saving the citizens a lot of litigation costs. There were certain problems, too. The public administration is still more inclined to answer easy requests (60% response) than hard questions (40% response). Also, only six percent of denied requests were accompanied by written rationale, and in 31% of all requests, the citizens faced a situation of administrative silence. Finally, the administration hardly, if ever, attempts to answer requests submitted in official languages other than Macedonian and Albanian (in the case of the monitoring, this refers to Roma and Turkish languages in a number of municipalities). The monitoring shows that the Law needs certain improvements and changes, provided by FOSIM in its Comments on the Implementation of the Law on Free Access to Information, published in Macedonian, Albanian and English. |
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