Georgia has been among the Open Governance Partnership (OGP) Bright Spot finalists at OGP Annual Summit taking place in London, UK on November 1, 2013. The initiatives vying for the Bright Spots award show ‘how governments in Open Government Partnership countries are working with citizens to sharpen governance, harness new technologies to increase public participation, and improve government responsiveness.’ Giorgi Kldiashvili, from the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) is among the seven shortlisted entries for the Bright Spots award for contributing to improvement of the Freedom of Information Act.
At today’s session Giorgi Kldiashvili presented the Decree on Proactive Disclosure of Public Information. The process of drafting the decree was initiated by Civil Society Organizations, which had used Government’s participation in Open Government Partnership to advocate improvements to the Freedom of Information legislation.
Government agencies are now obliged to proactively publish information in a way that is accessible for the public, and to establish an electronic request system for information.
Initiative has been prepared with financial and intellectual contribution from Human Rights and Good Governance Program of the Open Society Georgia Foundation.
Please vote online for Giorgi Kldiashvili and make Georgia the Bright Spot Winner.
About OGP
Open Government Partnership was launched in 2011 to provide an international platform for domestic reformers committed to making their governments more open, accountable, and responsive to citizens. The Government of Georgia joined the initiative in 2012.
By adopting the Decree on Proactive Disclosure of Public Information, the Government of Georgia established the new standards of transparency and accountability of public institutions. Government agencies are now obliged to proactively publish information regarding their activities, plans, expenses, public procurements and state property privatizations, and to ensure accuracy, authenticity and periodic updates of proactively published information. However, the Decree enunciated the rules for electronic request of information and defined the obligation of government agency to appoint a person responsible for availability of public information.