Decree “About the Necessary Measures for the Implementation of the Action Plan of Georgia for the Open Government Partnership”

This post originally appeared on the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information’s (IDFI) OGP Georgia blog and has been republished with permission from the author.

The Government of Georgia published an official decree “about the necessary measures for the implementation of the action plan of Georgia for the Open Government Partnership”, in which it took into account the recommendations developed by the Civil Society of Georgia, led by the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI), regarding the action planAction plans are at the core of a government’s participation in OGP. They are the product of a co-creation process in which government and civil society jointly develop commitments to open governmen... of Georgia, sent to the Prime Minister of Georgia on February 5th, 2012. The implementation of this decree will be monitored by the Government of Georgia, which will be presented with a unified report by the Anti-corruption Inter-agency Coordination Council. Accordingly, the governmental bodies will provide the council with reports on the progress of implementation of the decree.

The Decree contains six sections with a number of measures, the implementation of which is the obligation of governmental bodies. The deadline of implementation of most of them is September 1st, 2013. According to the decree of the Government, the Ministry of Justice is tasked to develop projects and suggestions about different aspects of the national action plan of Georgia for the “Open Government PartnershipThe Open Government Partnership (OGP) is a multi-stakeholder initiative focused on improving government transparency, ensuring opportunities for citizen participation in public matters, and strengthen... More”. Specifically, the action plan itself needs to be updated, a project about the list of public information to be published proactively should be developed, and the Ministry needs to develop suggestions about proactive publishing of information, guaranteeing the participation of citizens in the decision-making processes and the improvement of the legislative mechanisms of access to public information  by August 1, 2013.

The Ministry of Finance is tasked with elaborating suggestions for developing an effective system for guaranteeing transparencyAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, transparency occurs when “government-held information (including on activities and decisions) is open, comprehensive, timely, freely available to the pub... More of public finances by September 1, 2013. The Anti-corruption Inter-agency Coordination Council will be responsible for developing a project for the extended list of the officials subject to mandatory property declaration and ideas for guaranteeing effective mechanism for monitoring the said declarations by September 1, 2013. The Competition and the State Procurement Agency is tasked with developing suggestions about the measures necessary for improving the electronic system of state procurements by September 1, 2013. It should be noted that the decree stresses the necessity of the governmental bodies carrying out their tasks in close cooperation with the civil society of Georgia.

Photo credit: თბილისი / Tbilisi, by miss_rubov, via Flickr