Which Are the Most Proactively Open Public Institutions of 2019?

The Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports and the Ministry of Internal Affairs are the state institutions which most proactively publish information about their activities while the lowest indicator among central public institutions was received by the Administration of the Government of Georgia.

The information was released by the non-governmental organization Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI), which published the results of its monitoring of proactive online disclosure of information by Georgian public institutions in 2019.

The monitoring covered official websites of 100 public institutions, including the Parliament of Georgia, Administration of the Government of Georgia, 11 ministries / State Minister's Offices and 86 subordinated LEPLs and sub-agencies.

Regarding the disclosure of public information by the Ministries and state agencies, the list is as follows:

• Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports – 96% of information disclosed publically

• Ministry of Internal Affairs – 96%

• Georgian Parliament – 91%

• Justice Ministry – 89%

• Ministry of IDPs from occupied Territories, Labor, Health and Social Affairs – 87%

• Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure of Georgia – 86%

• Ministry of Defense – 84%

• Ministry of Finance – 75%

• Office of the State Minister for Reconciliation and Civic Equality – 66%

• Ministry of Foreign Affairs – 47%

• Ministry of Environment Protection and Agriculture – 42%

• Administration of the Government of Georgia – 39%

The data shows that in 2019 the average rate of proactive discloser of public information is 53%, which is 18% lower than in 2014.

“Compared to 2014, nine out of 13 central public institutions have shown less proactive publication of public information,” said IDFI.

In general, monitoring of state websites showed that public information is present and contains some information in 85% of cases. No public information is present on 6% of websites and 8% of state agencies do not have a website at all. 1% of the agencies have their information present on the websites of other agencies.

Overall rates of proactive disclosure of information show that ministries have 76% of information present while LEPLS have 47%.

Proactive disclosure of information by thematic groups is as follows:

• General Information – 69%

• Public Information section – 59%

• Personnel – 52%

• Public procurement – 38%

• Funding and reporting – 38%

• Legislative acts – 74%

• Other – 65%

The NGO stressed that the Governmental Administration has not published any information on procurement and finances since 2014, while approximately 40% of public institutions under the ministries have less than 30% of public information proactively published on their website.

The Organization also says that as of May 2019, no public institution had fully complied with the requirement to proactively publish information (100%) on its website, adding 15 institutions do not have a website at all or do not have a separate public information section on their website.

The monitoring showed that the most problematic issue for public institutions was publishing information related to state budget usage/expenses, including: received (22.2%) and issued (23%) grants, funding received from budgetary funds – 24.4%, property disposal – 27.4%, advertising expenses – 34.1%, etc.

However, public institutions showed the best results in proactively publishing legal acts and general information, including contact details (91.3%), charter (89.3%), normative acts (85.7%), and organizational structure (82.1%).

By Thea Morrison

Image source: Elsevier.com