When will Poland join the OGP?

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Among the new member countries which have joined the EU since 2004, Poland and Slovenia are the only ones that have not joined the Open Government Partnership (OGP) yet.  For Poland, this is surprising as the country had met the eligibility criteria of OGP.  When they found out that this was the case, a group of 13 NGOs engaged in the promotion of access to public information, the promotion of citizen participation in decision making and increasing transparency and accountability in public life, established the Coalition for entry into the OGP, with the aim of persuading the Polish government to join the initiative. In February 2012 they started to ask government representatives whether they had taken any actions to join the initiative.

The first signs of the administration were positive and the NGOs were encouraged to prepare proposals for potential areas in which Poland could be involved in the Partnership. The NGOs prepared a catalogue of proposed commitments for Poland to be made under the Open Government Partnership and sent them to the Prime Minister Donald Tusk and other members of government (see below). To this day (August 20, 2012), no comment has been made by any member of the government regarding the substantive issues presented in the submitted proposals. In April 2012, it seemed that the formal decision on the accession of Poland to the initiative would be taken quickly. A letter of intent was to be approved at a cabinet meeting on 10th April. Due to the lack of official information the NGOs issued another letter and asked the Prime Minister whether, and if so, when, Poland would join the Partnership. Till today, no response has been received. At the same time, government representatives assured during an international meeting that “Poland intends to join the OGP and that the project is being consulted with the NGOs”. To this day, no official information has been issued about the project and who is to be consulted. On May 15, 2012 a small amount of information on government plans was published on the website of the Ministry of Administration and Digitalization: the government decided that before Poland can join the Open Government Partnership a precise action plan needs to be developed. Thus, later that month, the NGOs set up an informal coalition to join the OGP. Its members want to raise the issue of Poland’s entry of the OGP in all forums and during public debates and ‘remind’ the government to answer the received letters, including the answer on the merits of submitted NGOs proposals. We will see what the outcome of this campaign will be, and we hope in an enthusiastic support of the international open government community.

Poland’s suggested OGP commitments

Challenge I: Improving public services

Commitments: 1. Increasing competences of public officials at each level in using digital technologies and tools for network communication

Challenge II: Increasing public integrity

Commitments: 1. Increasing standards of professional integrity in public administration and combating corruption

• Enhancement and extension of the Civil Service (strengthening the position of the Head of Civil Service, restoration of the Civil Service Office supervised by the Head of Civil Service, making local government employees part of the Civil Service; introducing codes of ethics).
• Introducing uniform declarations of assets (publication of asset declarations of senior public officials, particularly ministers; introducing mandatory disclosure of conflict of interest by employed and elected governmental officials participating in proceedings on legislationCreating and passing legislation is one of the most effective ways of ensuring open government reforms have long-lasting effects on government practices. Technical specifications: Act of creating or r..., decision-making, granting permissions).
• Adopting a long-term anti-corruption strategy (at least the already prepared Programme for Combating Corruption in 2011-16, developed by Ministry of the Interior and Administration and waiting to be approved since 2011).
• Strengthening legal protection for whistleblowers in Polish legislation (adoption of the law on protection for people who reveal misconduct in their workplace that threatens public interest).
• Introducing full 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 procurementTransparency in the procurement process can help combat corruption and waste that plagues a significant portion of public procurement budgets globally. Technical specifications: Commitments that aim t... More procedures.
• Introducing programmes for preventing corruption in public institutions.

2. Increasing transparency and public participationGiving citizens opportunities to provide input into government decision-making leads to more effective governance, improved public service delivery, and more equitable outcomes. Technical specificatio... in the law-making processes

• Introducing public consultations mechanisms as a constant element in the decision-making processes, including IT solutions for on-line public consultations.
• Creating a new legal framework for legislative process, on both the governmental and parliamentary levels, in order to increase transparency and strengthen the public participation in the process.

3. Increasing public access to government information

3a. Extending access to public information

• Amendment of the Act on Access to Public Information and other legislation which in fact restrict access to public information (after conducting evaluation of the current provisions).
• Reform of the Public Information Bulletin (improving the performance of the electronic platform of the Public Information Bulletin: integration of data, uniform record of information, compatibility of services and promoting the Public Information Bulletin as a public source of information).

3b. Extending access to the government data (presenting the information in the way that it is understandable for citizens, thus allowing them to participate in the decision-making process).

• Creating a central data repositoryAccess to relevant information is essential for enabling participation and ensuring accountability throughout the OGP process. An OGP repository is an online centralized website, webpage, platform or ... in which information provided by the administration will be stored in such way that it will be possible to use it again (open formats for machine data analysis).
• Ensuring access to other public information resources, which are not covered by the Act on Access to Public Information, but have been provided by public entities or have been financed by them (including the data of the Central Statistical Office).
• Launching the government information platform whose aim would be to promote the government policies and to provide access to information on the government strategies and activities.
• Creating a legal framework for open access to public resources, including acquisition of rights, sharing and licensing of resources that are subject to public rights.
• Promoting the idea of openness through: educational activities (among citizens, decision makers and administration); system solutions: ensuring openness of public administration information systems and respective computer programs; legislation: creating a legal framework for open licencing of public resources.