The Access to Information Progrmme in Bulgaria has released the results of its ninth audit of transparency at national and local institutions.
The aim of the audit, which AIP has performed since 2006, is to evaluate how the executive bodies fulfill their obligations for proactive publication of information online under the Access to Public Information Act and other legal regulations and to assess their readiness to respond to electronic requests.
The 2014 audit results show a low level of financial and operational transparency of Bulgarian public bodies, according to AIP.
Persistent problems include:
- A need for precision about the categories of information subject to proactive disclosure;
- A need for precision about the procedures for active publication of information online;
- A need for uniform procedures for dealing with the e-requests.
“The problems connected with the online publication of information raise the issue of establishing an independent body for coordination and oversight of the APIA implementation, including the proactive disclosure of information online,” the Bulgarian group said.
The group looked at 534 websites and 535 electronic requests were filed for a copy of the last public procurement contract signed by the institutions in 2013. See the 2014 Active Transparency Rating and the Comparative 2012, 2013 and 2014 Ratings.
New functionality allows for the generation of different type of ratings – by type of public body, by administrative region, regional structures and their principal ministry.
The 2014 Budget, Financial Transparency and Integrity Map of Municipalities was launched to illustrate geographically the fulfillment of obligations for online publication of budget and financial information and also information related to public officials’ integrity.
The results are available for the first time all available in English. The system allows for attachment of the responses of the institutions on the access to information requests and visualizes the results by institution, by indicators and by the statistics on the responses to the requests.
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