Institutional Transparency (BA0006)

Which public issue will be addressed by this obligation?
According to the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index for 2017, Bosnia and Herzegovina is ranked 91st out of a total of 180 countries with a score of 38 on a scale from 0 to 100, which is slightly worse than in the previous 2016. The Strategy for Combating Corruption (2015 - 2019) apostrophes the problem of transparency of institutions in BiH and states that "corruption is also favoured by a general lack of transparency in the work of institutions and insufficient freedom of access to information". Therefore, as some of the specific measures, increasing transparency in decision-making (2.7.1 Strategy) and (9.2.1 Strategy) public in institution work and access to information are mentioned. The level of transparency of the institutions at the level of the Council of Ministers of BiH is low, indicating that the institutions do not proactively publish much information of importance to citizens. The average level of transparency is 34.8 per cent, which means that most institutions do not have any basic information on their web sites about their work, management, structure, responsibilities, budget, programs, etc. - these are the results of research conducted by the Center for Social Research Analitika. Out of 68 institutions, only eight institutions have published more than 50 per cent of the documents/information stipulated by Proactive Transparency Standards. The lack of transparency of institutions in terms of proactive dissemination of information on the websites is also confirmed by the SIGMA 2017 report for BiH and the audit report on the impact of "Transparency of the Work of the Institutions of BiH".

What is the obligation?
The obligation will directly address the above problem, with the aim of increasing the degree of proactive transparency through the following measures:
o advocacy and promotion of proactive publication of information within the civil service
o promotion of proactive publication aimed at the management of institutions
o capacity building of civil servants in the area of proactive transparency
o customer satisfaction survey on proactive transparency
o measuring and tracking progress in the area of proactive transparency.

How will the fulfilment of the obligation contribute to the solving of the public problem?
Proactive disclosure of information will provide transparent insight into the work of institutions and decisions made on behalf of citizens. Access to information is thereby made easier for citizens, where the application on a prescribed form, the knowledge of the legal framework, the waiting or possible payment of access fees are replaced by a proactive approach to the institution and the disclosure of information prior to requesting them. Also, the proactive disclosure of information ensures that the information the institution possesses is accessible to everyone, and not just to applicants. Unless they have the right information, citizens are not able to exercise their rights and access to services provided by the public sector. Access to information is part of the basic tools for monitoring the work of elected officials, as well as for ensuring greater accountability for spending taxpayers money.

Why is this obligation relevant to OGP values?
Increases the transparency of institutions and the participation of citizens in decision-making.

Additional information
The following documents also mention the obligation of proactive disclosure:
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• European Good Governance Principles
• Directive on the repeated use of information 2003/98 / EC
• Revised Action Plan 1 of Public Administration Reform
• Anti-Corruption Strategy and Action Plan for the Implementation of the Anti-Corruption Strategy 2015-2019
• Regulations (BiH Public Procurement Law, Administrative Laws, Free Access to Information Law ...)
• Report performance audit on "Transparency of the institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina."

Goals/activities with measurable results:
After the Council of Ministers of BiH adopts the information on the Policy proactive transparency and Standards of proactive transparency of the PARCO and obliges all institutions on the implementation of the conclusion, the degree of fulfilment of standards of proactive transparency in the institutions of BiH is increased.
Capacities of civil servants and heads of institutions of proactive transparency are increased
A mechanism for measuring and researching proactive transparency has been established

6. Improving transparency in BiH institutions

Main Objective

"Proactive disclosure of information will provide transparent insight into the work of institutions and decisions made on behalf of citizens. Access to information is thereby made easier for citizens, where the application on a prescribed form, the knowledge of the legal framework, the waiting or possible payment of access fees are replaced by a proactive approach to the institution and the disclosure of information prior to requesting them. Also, the proactive disclosure of information ensures that the information the institution possesses is accessible to everyone, and not just to applicants. Unless they have the right information, citizens are not able to exercise their rights and access to services provided by the public sector. Access to information is part of the basic tools for monitoring the work of elected officials, as well as for ensuring greater accountability for spending taxpayers money."

"The obligation will directly address the above problem, with the aim of increasing the degree of proactive transparency through the following measures:

• advocacy and promotion of proactive publication of information within the civil service
• promotion of proactive publication aimed at the management of institutions
• capacity building of civil servants in the area of proactive transparency
• customer satisfaction survey on proactive transparency
• measuring and tracking progress in the area of proactive transparency."

Milestones

"6.1. After the Council of Ministers of BiH adopts the information on the Policy proactive transparency and Standards of proactive transparency of the PARCO and obliges all institutions on the implementation of the conclusion, the degree of fulfilment of standards of proactive transparency in the institutions of BiH is increased.

6.2. Capacities of civil servants and heads of institutions of proactive transparency are increased.

6.3. A mechanism for measuring and researching proactive transparency has been established."

Editorial Note: For the complete text of this commitment, please see Bosnia and Herzegovina's action plan at https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/bosnia-and-herzegovina-action-plan-2019-2021/.

Commitment Analysis
This commitment aims to increase access to information through proactive publication by institutions. It seeks to mandate proactive transparency to institutions through a decision by the Council of Ministers, followed up with training and monitoring to ensure implementation.

The Audit Office of Institutions of BiH has continually raised the lack of transparency of state institutions in its reports. [59] In particular, in its performance audit report on transparency from 2015, auditors found that state institutions only partially publish information of public interest and that their practices largely differ without a standardized approach to proactive transparency. [60] A civil society analysis from 2016 [61] found that the average proactive transparency level from the 68 websites of 40 state institutions was 34.8%. [62] A survey carried out in June/July 2019 showed that 63.46% of public institutions fulfill the proactive transparency standards the Council of Ministers put forward. [63]

Although the responsibility of public authorities to proactively disclose information is mentioned in different pieces of legislation, an explicit obligation was not provided for any level of government. To address this issue, in 2015 PARCO developed [64] the Policy on Proactive Transparency in Public Administration alongside its Standards in collaboration with four other state-level institutions [65] and a group of civil society organizations. [66]

Milestone 6.1. was fulfilled by December 2018, as the Council of Ministers had adopted the Policy and Standards [67] obliging all its ministries and agencies to regularly update documents and information published on their official websites. [68] These Standards contain 38 types of information that should be published proactively that includes information on budgets, public procurement, strategic documents, operational and organizational information, and information related to freedom of information. [69] [70]

Although the obligation to publish 38 types of information exists, it is not clear whether there is a systematic method to collecting and publishing the datasets across institutions. [71] In this instance, adoption of common methodologies for collecting and publishing data for public registers is necessary for effective proactive transparency.

Milestone 6.2 entails the creation of capacity-building opportunities. The public discourse on proactive transparency commenced in 2014 after the civil society organizations, with the support of the international community, organized a few conferences on the topic to generate public awareness on the issue and call for better institutional practices. Following these events, PARCO alongside several other state-level agencies [72] and civil society organizations [73] joined a project supported by the German development agency – the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) – through which several meetings and workshops on proactive transparency were held. Through the 6.2 milestone, PARCO aims to continue this capacity-raising work among civil servants and public officials.

The final milestone (6.3) aims to ensure that proactive transparency implementation is effectively assessed. Institutions are obliged to provide information on meeting the proactive transparency standards to the Public Administration Reform Coordinator's Office (PARCO). [74] These reports are not public but are used by the PARCO to assess implementation. They are also used to develop a public report that PARCO prepares and sends to the BiH Cabinet of Ministers. [75] In June 2018, PARCO developed an online survey for state-level institutions as the mechanism for measuring implementation of the 38 proactive transparency standards. [76] This document was submitted to the Council of Ministers for consideration; however, it was never adopted despite several reminders from this institution to the state-level government. At the time of writing this report (May 2020), PARCO has asked state-level institutions to appoint a contact person to complete the survey. PARCO plans to conduct the survey again and analyze the level of proactive transparency and the change that has occurred since the Policy and Standards have been developed and promoted. [77]

Overall, this commitment has a minor potential impact. This commitment is a step in the right direction, as the obligation and monitoring of proactive transparency measures could make a difference in increasing the amount of information available to the public. However, the lack of detail in the formats and presentation of the data limits its overall impact. The lack of criteria or targets for raising capacity of civil servants and public officials also limits overall impact.

Commitment 6. Improving transparency in BiH institutions

Complete:

In 2018, before the adoption of the action plan, the Council of Ministers of BiH adopted the Public Administration Reform Coordinator’s Office of BiH (PARCO) Policy for proactive transparency and standards of proactive transparency, requiring state institutions to be proactively transparent. [48] PARCO organized several online and in-person workshops for state- and entity-level civil servants on the policy and standards, fulfilling Milestone 6.2. [49]

To ensure compliance and monitor proactive transparency, PARCO conducted two surveys on implementation of policies noting an increase in institutional openness. In 2019, 63.46% of institutions surveyed adhered to the proactive transparency standards, and in 2020, this rating increased to 65.67% with 14 more institutions participating in the survey. [50] This positive change was reflected in views from representatives of civil society who said that the BiH government has opened up its data in recent years. [51] PARCO, in cooperation with the Agency for Statistics of BiH, plans to design an online survey to follow up on monitoring. [52]