Report: Access to Public Information Declined in 2018

Access to public information in Georgia deteriorated in 2018 as compared to the previous year, according to a new report published by the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI), a Georgian nonprofit that supports the development of an informed public.

In 2017, 88% of public information requests received a response, 76% of which were deemed “complete” responses. In 2018, that number fell slightly to 85%, with 71% of responses considered complete.

The drop in access to public information is considered slight, however, and the report notes that the 80% target threshold has been maintained, due in large part to the demonstrated accountability of several institutions, among them the Public Defender’s Office, Personal Data Protection Inspector’s Office and the State Audit Office.

The IDFI is engaged in ongoing legal disputes with public institutions that refuse to disclose public information in an effort to encourage higher standards of freedom of information in Georgia. In 2018, the IDFI filed eight administrative complaints, of which only one was not granted and subsequently taken to court, according to the report.

The organization requested information through standardized Freedom of Information (FOI) request letters. Examples of such information include: State-owned vehicles and fines issued to them; advertising expenses; full staff lists and their remuneration; amount of damages requested and compensated; and reports on bonuses and salary supplements issued to officials.

The most frequently-ignored requests (20%) were related to the disclosure of bonuses and salaries issued to officials.

Public institutions which did not fulfill the IDFI’s requests either ignored them entirely or offered “unsubstantiated refusals” to divulge information. For example, the Administration of the Government of Georgia ignored the request to disclose information about funds allocated to municipalities from the Government Contingency Fund; the National Archives of Georgia ignored the request to disclose information about the refusals to grant access to the reading halls; and the Tbilisi City Court refused to disclose the number of disputes pending review and those where parties had yet to receive the court decision, stating that these data had not been processed.

A total of 42 public institutions, however, complied fully with IDFI’s requests, and the Ministry of Environment Protection and Agriculture showed nearly perfect (99.9%) compliance with FOI regulations.

Many, however, were not considered to be sufficiently accountable, with the Ministry of Justice receiving the worst rating. In 2018, the Ministry and its agencies ignored 316 of the 345 requests sent by IDFI, and the Ministry of Justice itself ignored 25 of the 26 requests, resulting in an openness level of only 3.85%, according to the report.

The Ministry of Justice’s openness rate dropped from a high score of 95.6% to 48.4% in 2013, and to 0% in 2016.

The Ministry of Finance received the second-worst rating (28%) in terms of access to public information.

“It is regrettable that the Ministry of Justice, the primary responsibility of which is to uphold the law, is the one that shows the most disrespect towards legal requirements related to freedom of information,” the report’s conclusion reads.

“Likewise, the Ministry of Finance and its sub-entities, which are supposed to be the guarantors of financial transparency in the public sector, refuse to disclose information about their public spending,” it continues.

By Lucy Papachristou

Photo Source: Wikipedia