17 May 2012
On May 17, 2012 Access to Information Programme presented held its annual report Access to Information in Bulgaria 2011 at a presconference in the Bulgarian News Agency. The twelfth access to information report contains:
- recommendations for facilitating the access to information and increasing the transparency and accountability of the public administration;
- detailed analysis of the effective access to information legislation with a focus on the Internal Access to Public Information Act Implementation Rules of the public bodies;
- results from the 2012 AIP audit on the active disclosure of public information online by the executive bodies;
- analyses of the access to information cases referred to AIP for legal help and consulation during 2011;
- an overview of the most interesting developments in the FOI litigation in 2011, including summaries of cases in which AIP has provided court representation.
Specific recommendations which AIP formulates for enhancing the access to information and increasing the transparency and accountability of the institutions in 2012 are:
- Signing and ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents;
- Authorization of a specific public body to supervise and coordinate the Access to Public Information Act (APIA) implementation activities;
- Effective imposing of the sanctions for not complying with the requirements of the APIA;
- Increased oversight by the General Inspectorate at the Council of Ministers on the work of the inspectorates in order to guarantee efficient investigations on APIA noncompliance;
- Proactive publication in the Internet of public procurements contracts;
- Regular APIA trainings for the public officials;
- Proactive publication of all information related to the discussion of draft legal acts.
Other key AIP recommendations this year are mainly connected with the internal rules for APIA implementation which should contain:
- The assigning of internal unit to be in charge of and to coordinate the process of active disclosure of public information:
- The precision of the categories of information subject to active disclosure;
- The precision of the procedure for active publication of information online ensuring its timeliness;
- The unification of the content of Access to Information subsections;
- The unification of the internal procedures for dealing with the e-requests;
The English version of the Access to Information in Bulgaria 2011 report is online available: http://store.aip-bg.org/publications/ann_rep_eng/2011.pdf.
The Report is published with the financial support of the Trust for Civil Society in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE Trust) in the framework of the project Civil Audit of Active Transparency of Government.