Access to Information Programme

United Nations Development Programme

Protocol from a workshop with municipal and regional administration officials responsible for the provision of public information

held in Montana on March 23, 2007 within the project Increasing Government Transparency and Accountability through Electronic Access financed by UNDP Democratic Governance Trust Fund (DGTF)

I. Purpose of the workshop:

Conducting a one-day discussion on active provision of information, particularly publication of information on institutional web sites, with local and regional government officials from the Regions of Montana, Vidin and Vratsa.

II. Project performance/implementation issues addressed:

The following issues were discussed during the workshop:
1.Conditions for proper implementation of the Bulgarian Access to Public Information Act (APIA)
2.Weaknesses of Bulgarian legislation regarding access to information
3.Results from the assessments which Access to Information Programme Foundation (AIP) conducted in March 2006 and March 2007 of 411 institutional web sites from the point of view of the APIA
4.Foreign legislation providing for electronic access to information (Hungary, Estonia, USA, Serbia) - publication schemes, list of categories of information subject to active publication
5.Problems with active provision of information, particularly publication on institutional web sites, that officials encounter in their work:
- financial problem with the maintenance of the web sites by external companies;
- big volume of information that shall be uploaded online;
- sometimes, external maintainers improperly edit the information that institutions send for uploading on web sites;
- lack of responsible information officer;
- Public Relations officials are overwhelmed with responsibilities different from updating and uploading information on the web site;
- frequent change of officials leads to inconsistency in the efficient work.
6.Categories of information that shall be actively provided by the institutions by publishing them on the web sites:
- information about the renumeration of the members of the local parliament;
- asset declarations;
- drafts of all acts before their final adoption, as well as information about the opportunities for public discussion/consultation on them;
- draft budget and adopted budget;
- annual and six-month activities reports of the particular institution;
- description of the data volumes and resources, used by the respective administration;
- results from different kind of inspections and imposed sanctions;
- public procurement committee minutes, as well as the signed contract.
7.The role of the head of administrations in the active provision of information

III. Follow-up and/or recommended actions:

On the bases of the discussion, the following recommendations were given by the participants in the workshop:

1. Internal record management system to be connected with the web site
2. Provision for the appointment of a responsible information official to be introduced in the APIA
3. The date of last updating of the online documents shall be signified
4. Training of heads of administration how to upload information on the web sites
5. Unification of services and procedures for active publication of information on institutional web sites (starting with domain names, for example)
6. Drafting of an Instruction by the Ministry of State Administration and Administrative Reform to the heads of the relevant administrations with a model of a web site will facilitate the active provision of information online.

Participants:

1. Krum Krumov - Deputy Regional Governor, Montana
2. Ivan Sergisov - Deputy Regional Governor, Montana
3. Valery Timov Georgiev - Head of Regional Governor's Administration, Montana
4. Polina Todorova - "Organizational Activities and Protocol" Department, Regional Governor's Administration, Vidin
5. Desislava Vasileva - "Public relations" Department, Regional Governor's Administration, Vidin
6. Lubomir Dimitrov - "Public Relations" Department, Municipality of Lom
7. Vladimir Raykov - Head of Administration, Municipality of Lom
8. Plamenka Tsekova - "Municipal Administration" Department, Municipality of Belogradchik
9. Petya Genova - "Public Relations" Department, Municipality of Berkovitsa
10 .Slavy Ganev - System Administrator, Municipality of Dimovo
11. Reneta Georgieva Angelova, Municipality of Vratsa
12. Petya Hristova Ganchovska - Press attache, Municipality of Vratsa
13. Dimitar Marinov Todorov - Municipality of Vratsa
14. Antoaneta Ivanova Kotsina, Municipality of Montana
15. Petya Georgieva Dimitrova - "Public Relations" Department, Municipality of Montana
16. Nikolay Dragiev - Correspondent of the Bulgarian National Radio, Montana
17. Poly Marinova - Correspondent of Darik Radio, Montana
18. Gabriela Gavrilova - KATV Mon7, Montana
19. Yanka Apostolova - Mont Press newspaper, Montana
20. Svetlana Trashlieva - Concurent newsletter, Montana
21. Gergana Jouleva, PhD, AIP Executive Director
22. Nikolay Marekov, Information Systems Coordinator, AIP
23. Nikolay Ninov, Coordinator of the coordinators in the country, AIP
24. Diana Bancheva, Media Relations Coordinator, AIP
25. Kiril Terziiski, Legal Projects Coordinator, AIP
26. Lubomir Yordanov, AIP Coordinator for Montana
27. Aneliya Slaveikova, AIP Coordinator for Vidin