Access to Information Programme | Information newsletter issue 4(16) April 2005

Information newsletter
Issue 4(16), April 2005

AIP Trained Municipality Officials from Plovdiv and Pazardzik
Anton Andonov, AIP

Access to Information Programme organized a two-day seminar on the “Freedom of information” for officials from the local administration. On 7 and 8 April 2005, a municipality mayor from Plovdiv, heads of municipality administrations, lawyers, information security officials, and officials from the “Citizens’ Registration and Administrative Services”, as well as from the “Territorial-Settlement Structure” departments, gathered at “Druzhba” hall, in Hotel St. Petersburg in Plovidv. Municipality officials from the towns of Assenovgrad, Velingrad, Kaloyanovo, Krichim, Kuklen, Lesichevo, Panagurishte, Peshturicha, Peshtera, Plovdiv, Parvomay, Rakitovo, Sopot, Stamboliyski, Hisarya took part in the seminar.

In two days, the experts from AIP—Ms. Gergana Jouleva, and Mr. Alexander Kashumov, presented the Access to Public Information Act (APIA), its exemptions, and practices from its implementation.

Andrej Bartosiewicz, Gergana Jouleva, Brano Orgonik (V.V.M.Z) and Alexander Kashumov during the first day of the training

Mr. Andrej Bartosiewicz from Slovakia was a guest lecturer of the training. He presented the Slovak Freedom of Information Act and shared some interesting examples of its implementation or violation. Mr. Bartosiewicz emphasized that the civil trust was a condition for successful and efficient government.

Thirty local officials took part in the training

In the course of the training, thirty municipality officials shared their experience in the area of access to information provision. According to them, freedom of information was a necessary condition for the establishment of people’s own opinion about the work of the local administration. Freedom of information was also the main factor for the increase of civil activity and the exercise of constitutional rights. The participants in the seminar emphasized that freedom of information was a guarantee for the accountability of the officials and had anti-corruption effect.

An important part of the training was finding solutions for particular cases. In all these simulation cases, prepared by AIP experts beforehand, the seminar participants were supposed to make a balance between the right of access to information and other protected interests, such as personal data, commercial secret, etc.

The participants pointed out that the basic problem in their work is the need for assessment in specific cases of provision of access to information. According to the officials, thorough knowledge of the legislation was required in order for accurate decisions to be made. In this regard, they admitted that the training was of great benefit for their work.

The training of the officials from the local administration from the regions of Plovdiv and Pazardzhik was realized in the framework of the project "Implementation of Freedom of Information in Bulgaria", implemented by Access to Information Programme with the cooperation of VVMZ East European Investment Services B.V. (NL) and financially supported by the Programme for Social Transformation in Central and East Europe (MATRA) of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The main objective of the project is to improve the provision of access to information practices in Bulgaria.