Transparency of municipalities to the public, 71% of them at medium or low levels

2024-02-12 11:31:00, Aktualitet CNA

Transparency of municipalities to the public, 71% of them at medium or low

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The number of municipalities and counties that have made an effort to improve transparency has been increasing, but most still remain at average, low or very low levels.

The Pro Active Transparency Index published by the Commissioner for the Right to Information and Protection of Personal Data has concluded that for the year 2023, at least 29 percent of local self-government units have high proactive transparency.

"At the end of the monitoring of proactive transparency, we notice that 21 local self-government units have been classified with high proactive transparency and are marked with a green light at the traffic lights, while 43 institutions of local self-government units have been classified with medium proactive transparency and at the traffic lights are marked with white light; 6 local self-government units are listed with low proactive transparency and are marked with a yellow light at the traffic lights; only 3 local self-government units are classified with very low proactive transparency and are marked with a red light at the traffic lights.

Compared to last year's findings, we found an increase in transparency in local self-government units with a green light from 21% last year to 29% for this year, which marks the most obvious improvement from all the years past, in the proactive transparency of the public authorities of the local self-government units" says the Commissioner's publication.

But what are actually the elements that are taken into account during monitoring and that build this index for local units?

There are at least ten indicators that are evaluated, starting from the transparency program that every Municipality must have in order to then go to the decisions of the Municipal Council, the biography of the holder, the institution or the mayor, the structure or organization of the institution, audit reports, the forecast of procurement and mid-term budget program.

The coordinator for the right to information, the register of requests and responses, legislation and finally the coordinator for consultations with the public. Each of these indicators when completed is evaluated with 1 point, partially realized with 0.5 points and when it does not exist with zero points./Monitor