The population is not informed about the Public Council

On Wednesday the  Committee to Protect the Rights of  Oil Industry Workers held a presentation of results of the project "Promotion of open government”  in  the "Central Palace Hotel." The project is  funded  by the American organization "Review Watch",   in the frameworks of which  was conducted the monitoring of the  implementation of the National Action Plan of open government in four regions: Salyan, Neftchala, Lankaran, and  Shirvan.

Monitoring  was to reveal: the activity level of public participation in government agencies and state agencies to inform the public about its activities. A participant of the  monitoring, Rovshan Agayev, said that it was done by requests to state agencies and interviews with representatives of official structures.

He  reminded that National Action Plan of open government envisaged the creation of the Public Council, real activity, regulations, initiatives, representation in the Public Council of independent structures,  nd monitoring of interactivity in the Internet. 

 The attention was also focused on the availability of information on the activities of local official structures,  of a  representative on freedom of information, the presence or absence of reports on freedom of information.

Monitoring results showed that all the above  mentioned issues are not at the proper level, so that the Public Council was created only in Salyan  region. The executive branches  are unaware about the status of the Public Council; local media also does not have information about all of this , which indicates the absence of enlightenment work among the population.

 Even if residents sent question through Internet, the response did not come. Meetings like "open microphone"  were held, but  the proposals expressed in them wee not  implemented. People responsible for the information do not even have experience in preparing press releases.

Besides the  executive power, other state agencies do not have the internet site or e-mail.

The web sites of  executive power contain only one-sided information. No reports are published on the activities of the authorities, only brief reports. Local authorities hold meetings without notifying the population, which is also not aware of the Public Council. -05C04-