The Freedom of Information Center of Armenia has issued a comprehensive report entitled “Freedom of Information in the Republic of Armenia: 2011 Monitoring.”
“The biggest problem is the absence of culture among many officials to work openly and transparently, as most of them are still not used to responding to public demands for information and do not consider giving information to be one of their main duties,” said FOICA lawyer Gevorg Hayrapetyan, according to an article in Armenia Now.
In the monitoring exercise, 10 applicants sent in a total of 250 requests for information to 50 bodies: 10 central government bodies, 10 provincial administrations, 10 municipalities, 10 village administrations and 10 organizations of public significance.
“In 56 percent of cases complete answers were provided, 30 percent of requests were left unanswered, 8 percent were turned down, with only one lawfully. Among the 50 bodies the best results were shown by provincial administrations and the worse by organizations of public significance,” according to FOICA.
The monitoring shows that provincial authorities gave complete information in response to about 75 percent of 50 requests, while organizations of public significance provided complete answers to only less than 45 percent of such requests, leaving as many of them totally unanswered.
The best result was by the administration of the village of Oshakan. The worst results are shown by the administration of the village of Aygedzor, Clinical Hospital CJSC and Ketrin Group Ltd.
The National Assembly scored poorly.
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