OGP Developments in Croatia – A Non-Governmental Actor’s View

Since Croatia applied to join the OGP in 2011 when the then government was more focused on parliamentary elections than on plans for the future, OGP related activities were run by enthusiasts from civil society organisations (CSOs, e.g. GONG ), academia (e.g. the Institute of Public Finance), the Office of the President and a few people from the administration, the crucial role being taken by the Government Office for Cooperation with NGOs. The process was almost by the book, with broad public consultations and timelines available to citizens prior to consultations. A forum was established, which after the electionsImproving transparency in elections and maintaining the independence of electoral commissions is vital for promoting trust in the electoral system, preventing electoral fraud, and upholding the democr... More became the Council for the Initiative of the OGP with members from ministries, offices (of the President, the Prime Minister and for Cooperation with NGOs), Agency for Protection of Personal Data, associations (of counties, cities and municipalities), journalists, CSOs and academia.

We knew that we had to know the laws, regulations, procedures, and the people involved, less on higher than on lower levels, because otherwise they could easily reject demands as being impossible, even if higher officials committed themselves; and to see together what could be done in one to two and what in maybe five to six years, or never. However, even with all our ‘capabilities’ to demand and to negotiate, the Action Plan is much more modest than we expected, i.e. it cannot remedy all the Croatian deficiencies listed in the Open Budget Index.

Challenges to OGP in Croatia are numerous: the economic crisis, necessitating concentration of the Ministry of Finance on more pressing issues than fiscal 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; the ban on employment in the public administration; lack of experts in administration and of funding for improvements in IT; the independence of the State Auditing Office (SAO) preventing the Government from being able to demand that it publish reports on extra-budgetary funds and the independence of local governments units (LGUs) meaning that they cannot be required to publish citizens budget guides or agendas of their sessions, so it ended up with the Government merely making recommendations to SAO and LGUs.

The Action Plan is less committed than we wished for, but bearing in mind the challenges, we would be very happy if in the end we obtained everything written in it. It is focused on fiscal transparency, access to information, using IT, citizen and CS participation.

The prevalence of non-governmental actors from the beginning of the OGP in Croatia is visible in the preparations for the European OGP regional meeting this October in Dubrovnik. It is being convened jointly by Croatian CSOs and Government and all sessions will be moderated by representatives of CSOs and academia.  It has almost been envisaged as “how government could assist CS” instead of the usual “how CS could assist government”!

Of course, not everything is so rosy. The level of the openness of the Government is still far from satisfactory,  but step by step, with the Government’s endeavors and our constant contributions, we hope to be moving forwards to a more transparent, accountable and participative society.