Not All Civil Society Proposals for Open Government Considered

The Government has partially taken into account the proposals submitted by civil society in the development of the National Action Plan for the promotion of open government in the years 2016-2018. Turan was told by Samir Aliyev, representing a non-governmental organization.

The new document focuses on the application of information technology and electronic services, while there is a need to strengthen transparency, accountability and effectiveness of government operations, he said.

According to Aliyev, the civil society has offered to disclose the information about the founders of at least companies involved in the development of public funds. But it was not taken into account.

Note that the National Action Plan includes a number of measures to ensure financial transparency. These include: ensuring participation of the civil society in the deliberations of the draft state budget, the publication of annual reports on the execution of the state budget with the conclusion of the Accounting Chamber, posting on the website of the Ministry of Finance quarterly reports on the execution of the state budget. The Accounting Chamber should inform the public about the audit activities carried out by it.

Companies controlled by the state, as well as state-budgetary organizations, will publish annual financial statements from 2016 on. The companies that use funds from the state budget will report about it in the corporate websites and in the media. ----08B