News in English     | 28.09.2018. 19:45 |

Transparency International BH hosts conference to mark Access to Information Day

FENA Kanita Aliagić

SARAJEVO, September 28 (FENA) - "Transparency in the allocation of public funds - availability of information and perspectives for open government" was the topic of the conference held today in Sarajevo marking the International Day for the Universal Access to Information.

The conference was a chance to present the research of Transparency International, which has shown the unsatisfactory level of transparency of public authorities, reflected in the disregard of legally prescribed procedures, and misinterpretation of provisions.

“The information that most often are not available to the public are those regarding public spending, or information on beneficiaries of scholarships, NGO funds, subsidies, and incentives for farmers and the like. Public institutions and authorities generally avoid sharing the information on recipients of such funds with the citizens,” said Ivana Korajlić from Transparency International BiH.

She also says that there is a problem of respecting deadlines and forms, and when it comes to accessing full information, this is particularly limited.

In RS, for example, 70 percent of the institutions that received requests to provide information have not complied or provide all the requested information, in the Federation of BiH this ratio is just above 50 percent, and there is very little information published by the institutions on their websites.

Human Rights Ombudsperson Jasminka Džumhur believes that the issue of the implementation of the law on free access to information indicates that there are weaknesses that the BiH Ombudspersons have pointed to already.

She says that the highest number of complaints to the Ombudsman institution is related to the issue of public funds spending, "which is the money that belongs to all citizens" and there is no reason why these data should not be published.

She also urged the media outlets to use media space to educate citizens because very often inaccurate and incomplete requests for information are used as a basis for rejecting such requests.

(FENA) S. R.

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