The Access to Information Programme in Bulgarian has found “a chaotic variety” of structures and information on government websites.
The audit was designed to evaluate the implementation of the obligations under the Access to Public Information Act (APIA) for online publication of certain categories of information. The study also examined the performance under other regulations for active disclosure of public information at a central, regional, and local level.
The mixed performance the study found is due to “a lack of an oversight body with regard to the implementation of the APIA, and insufficient government financial and operational transparency, especially with regard to the contracts of the institutions,” according to a press release.
“AIP recommends more detailed regulation of the obligations for online publication of information, including mechanisms for oversight and sanctions for non-compliance with the requirements of the law, more efficient active disclosure of financial and operational information, and development of the Access to Information sections on institutional web sites to facilitate and help citizens in their search for information.”
AIP reviewed 495 websites out of a total of 516 institutions (21 institutions still do not have official web sites).
Also, 505 requests were filed electronically for access to the Internal APIA Implementation Rules in an electronic form, or by signifying the exact link to the web address where they could be found.
Author of the analysis of the results is Gergana Jouleva, AIP Executive Director. The analysis and the comparative data for 2010 and 2011 are part of the AIP annual report Access to Information in Bulgaria 2010 which was presented on May 4, at a special press conference in Sofia. The English version of the report will soon be released.
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