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 Veliko Turnovo on April 27, 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 Veliko Tarnovo, Pleven, Gabrovo and Lovech.

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. 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
3. Foreign legislation providing for electronic access to information (Hungary, Estonia, USA, Serbia) - publication schemes, list of categories of information subject to active publication
4. Problems with active provision of information, particularly publication on institutional web sites, that officials encounter in their work:
- lack of specific legal requirement for the creation, keeping, and provision of information in electronic form, as well as for the maintenance of Internet sites;
- unclear formulation of the obligations for the institutions for active publication of information and control over the implementation of the APIA;
- lack of responsible information official;
-unclear legal regulations regarding the publicity of mayor's decisions;
- lack of a description of the registries that the institutions keep.
5. Categories of information that shall be actively provided by the institutions by publishing them on the web sites:
- final acts of the local government in their full content;
- drafts of all acts before their final adoption, as well as information about the opportunities for public discussion/consultation on them;
- the schedule for the sessions of the local government with the respective agenda;
- contact information of the members of the local government;
- a registry of all mayor's decisions and orders;
-description of the data volumes and resources, used by the respective administration;
- results from different kind of inspections and imposed sanctions;
- asset declarations;
- list of the information categories subject to administrative secret.
6. A model institutional web site from the point of view of access to information was presented.

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. The requirement for an information official of a department to be specified in the Access to Public Information Act
2. The publicity of the public procurement contracts to be clearly provided by law
3. Categories of information regarding public procurement tenders subject to provision to be specified by law
4. Main categories of information subject to publication online to be legally defined
5. Unification of the content and structure of institutional web sites by the Minister of State Administration and Administrative Reform or by law
6. A special freedom of information section to be created on the web sites of the institutions

Participants:

1. Galina Dimitrova Vasileva - PR Senior Expert, Regional Governor's Administration, Lovech
2. Galina Liubomirova Georgieva - PR Chief Expert, Municipality of Teteven
3. Iliana Sheneva - Municipality of Sevlievo
4. Deyan Stefanov - Supervisor, Municipalioty of Troyan
5. Nevena Ivanova Yakova - Legal Officer, Municipality of Veliko Tarnovo
6. Tihomir Penev Manov - IT specialist, Municipality of Veliko Tarnovo
7. Stela Ivanova Ivanova - Supervisor, Municipality of Strazhitsa
8. Petya Dimitrova Stoyanova - Expert in Administrative Department , Municipality of Strazhitsa
9. Krasimir Kostadinov - Supervisor, Municipality of Pavlikeni
10. Petya Stefanova Raikova - Director, "Legal Services" Department, Regional Governor's Administration Veliko Tarnovo
11. Dimitrina Vasileva Sakarova - Supervisor, Regional Governor's Administration Veliko Tarnovo
12. Iliyana Popova - Municipality of Dryanovo
13. Rumyana Nenova Dacheva - Municipality of Dryanovo
14. Tsvetanka Marinova Pisinska - Senior expert - supervisor, Municipality of Gorna Oriahovitsa
15. Todor Marinov Tonkov - Senior expert, IT specialist, Municipality of Lyaskovets
16. Ivan Angelov Rashkov - Head of Administration, Municipality of Lyaskovets
17. Gergana Jouleva, PhD, AIP Executive Director
18. Nikolay Marekov, Information Systems Coordinator, AIP
19. Diana Bancheva, Media Relations Coordinator, AIP
20. Kiril Terziiski, Legal Projects Coordinator, AIP
21. Svetoslav Stefanov, AIP Coordinator for Veliko Tarnovo
22. Tsvetan Todorov, AIP Coordinator for Lovech
23. Petar Simeonov, AIP Coordinator for Gabrovo