On October 20, the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information summarized the first stage of the operation of the online public information data base www.OPENDATA.ge and unveiled measures planned for the second stage. The support for the event was provided by the Open Society Georgia Foundation.
OPENDATA.ge is the online source of information on budgets of public agencies, payroll funds, announced tenders and state purchases, business trips, projects planned and implemented by public agencies. The information has been obtained, processed and uploaded into OPENDATA.ge since April 2011. Up to 300 visitors visit the webpage a day.
“This is the public information published on our website, which can be accessed by any citizen. The research has showed some progress in terms of information delivery compared to previous months, however still many public agencies remain non-transparent. There still are several agencies from which it is actually impossible to obtain public information”, said Levan Avalishvili, one of the heads of the project.
The authors of OPENDATA.ge, who have at the same time monitored information resources of public agencies of Georgia, named the least and most transparent public institutions at the news conference.
“The Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs of Georgia has proved to be the most open public agency. Obtaining public information from defense and law enforcement agencies is specifically difficult. They often ignore the requests”, said Sergi Jorbenadze, the project coordinator.
Of the total number of requests for information sent by the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information it has failed to receive answers to 641. The organization has filed several suits against some public agencies for withholding public information.
Please, see the media coverage of the event.