prijava
SARAJEVO, September 28 (FENA) - Online conference "Proactive Transparency in Public Administration in BiH" was held today organized by the Public Administration Reform Coordinator's Office, the BiH Agency for Statistics, the Directorate for European Integration and the Agency for Development of Higher Education and Quality Assurance.
The conference was organized on the occasion of the International Day for Universal Access to Information, and within the Program for Strengthening Public Institutions, which is implemented by GIZ on behalf of the governments of the United Kingdom and the Federal Republic of Germany, reports MITA Group agency.
The meeting was opened by Dragan Ćuzulan, State Coordinator for Public Administration Reform in BiH, Edita Kalajdžić, Secretary of the FBiH Government, and Tom Barrie, Second Secretary and Head of the Fund for Good Governance of the British Embassy in Sarajevo.
Barrie, on that occasion, said that transparency is the backbone of a public administration that is citizen-oriented and encourages the authorities to maintain their responsibility to citizens.
“But it is not just about people and advocacy groups asking questions to their leaders and institutions. Proactive transparency is the gold standard that governments should strive for. This means that transparency is not only implemented through laws and written norms, but that it should actually be a normal situation for public institutions, which make all information and data of public interest available to the public at the beginning,” said Barrie.
He added that he hopes that the authorities at all levels in BiH would find ways to improve and increase their proactive disclosure of information and that the UK Government would continue to support them.
The conference participants discussed the need to improve the proactive publication of information on the work of institutions through official websites, emphasizing in particular the pandemic conditions that have strengthened the need for digital communication.
The findings of the research on meeting the standard of proactive transparency conducted by the Public Administration Reform Coordinator's Office were also briefly presented.
It was concluded that, although good practices already exist in proactive citizen information, consistent implementation of all 38 proactive transparency standards, which include financial, strategic, operational, organizational information as well as information on public procurement, public consultations and freedom of access to information, can significantly improve the transparency of public administration.
(FENA) A. B.
