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North Macedonia

Macedonia Mid-Term Report 2016-2018

Macedonia’s third national action plan was a result of a participatory process and covered diverse issues, ranging from whistleblower protection to budget transparency. However, the potential impact and completion level of the 34 commitments varied. For the next action plan, the government could consider prioritizing the most ambitious and relevant commitments.

Highlights

Commitment Overview Well-Designed? *
4.1 Implement law on whistleblower protection The commitment activities to more fully implement the law on whistleblower protection could improve public accountability of government officials and increase awareness of whistleblowing. Yes
✪ 5.1 Open budget initiative This commitment represents a transformative change in government practice which has not produced (or published late) key budget documents for the public in the past five years. Yes

* Commitment is evaluated by the IRM as specific, relevant, and has a transformative potential impact
✪ Commitment is evaluated by the IRM as being specific, relevant, potentially transformative, and substantially or fully implemented

Process

The Ministry of Information Society and Administration (MISA) coordinated OGP activities. The consultative process was implemented through two national events, offline working groups, and online consultations with the public on the e- demokratija.gov.mk portal. Although awareness-raising activities were limited, a variety of representatives from state institutions, CSOs, business organizations, and universities were able to influence the development of the action plan.

Macedonia did not act contrary to OGP process

A country is considered to have acted contrary to process if one or more of the following occurs:

  • The National Action Plan was developed with neither online or offline engagements with citizens and civil society
  • The government fails to engage with the IRM researchers in charge of the country’s Year 1 and Year 2 reports
  • The IRM report establishes that there was no progress made on implementing any of the commitments in the country’s action plan

Performance

Macedonia’s third action plan contained 34 commitments organized into eight themes. One commitment (6.8) was officially withdrawn, with the government citing that the implementing partner organization failed to provide funds for the commitment activities. Of the 34 commitments, only two were judged to have a transformative potential impact with only one of those two substantially complete or completed.

IRM Recommendations

  1. Strengthen the action plan development process
  2. Improve the Law on Free Access to Public Information
  3. Enhance the legal framework on whistleblowing and develop institutional mechanisms for effective protection of whistleblowers
  4. Improve Budget Transparency by meeting the standards of the Open Budget Initiative
  5. Introduce a commitment to disclose beneficial ownership in public contracts

Downloads

Filed under: Europe IRM IRM Report IRM Reports National OGP Member Information Report Western Balkans

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