BRATISLAVA, February 22, (WEBNOVINY) – Openness and transparency of government institutions in Slovakia will be regularly evaluated. The first assessment based on an Openness Barometer will take place in October of this year. This stems from an action plan of the for open government initiative, which the Cabinet approved on Wednesday.
Based on the action plan, the Government Council for Transparency and Open Government will be established in February to assess the openness of relevant institutions based on yet-to-be-defined criteria. In line with the material, members of the council should represent the Chamber for Non-Governmental Non-Profit Organizations, the Council for Non-Governmental Non-Profit Organizations, members of the interdepartmental working group (responsible for the action plan), selected watchdogs and other personalities with a high moral credit in the society.
Based on the action plan, a new portal of open data – data.gov.sk is to be launched in March of this year. The portal should feature the register of public sector contracts and datasets concerning services to citizens and transparency of managing public funds. Furthermore, citizens should have more information on the use of sources from EU structural sources, as well as sources from the Norwegian and Swiss financial mechanisms and other subsidy programs.
The draft further proposes to introduce an electronic petition as of July. At present, parliament has to discuss a petition supported by more than 100,000 citizens. The government, however wants to react more promptly and efficiently. Thus it plans to commit itself to deal with every electronic petition that succeeds to collect 15,000 signatures over the period of thirty days.
SITA