OPEN GOVERNMENT PARTNERSHIP ACTION PLAN OF THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC
1 Introduction
On September 20, 2011, the Slovak Republic acceded to the international Open Government Partnership Initiative (OGP) and joined 50 OGP member countries, which include among others, Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden, Czech Republic, Norway, as well as the USA, Brazil, Indonesia, Kenya and Ghana.
The Government of the Slovak Republic joined the Open Government Partnership and committed togive its citizens a larger role in public administration in support of its policy with emphasis on a change in the culture of politics, on transparency and eradication of corruption which has been implemented since its formation in 2010. The effort to change the paradigm can also be illustrated by the statement made by Slovak Prime Minister, Iveta Radičová: “If the government is to be human, it must be open to citizens.” The partner countries made a commitment to submit their National Action Plans that describe the actions to be taken in the field of open government by April 9, 2012.
The Action Plans will be presented at the Annual OGP Conference in Brazil on April 16-18, 2012.
Major commitments that Slovakia declared for by joining the OGP Initiative are transparency ingovernment and public administration, public participation, and responsibility and openness through new technologies. Slovakia will promote use of new technologies to facilitate innovations and active participation of citizens in public discussions. Slovakia will also take measures to promote access to information regarding actions of the Government and public administration, and will comply with associated principles of accountability.
The Slovak Republic has adopted various measures in the fight against corruption and to enhance transparency. It has adopted an act that conditions the entry of force of contracts made in the public administration sector to their publication in the Central Register of Contracts
1. The European Union declared this anti-corruption programme as exceeding the standards and to be used as a model for other countries. The Slovak Republic considers its membership in the OGP initiative, inaugurated by the President of the United States Barack Obama, as an acknowledgement of its efforts to promote open society and considers this programme the right action to be taken in its efforts to make public policies as transparent as possible. This initiative complies with the efforts of the European Unionaiming at becoming a leader in the use of open data. In December 2011, the European Commission launched the Open Data Strategy for Europe to make its data available to the public through a new open portal. The Action Plan has been developed in consultation with a wide spectrum of organizations involved in the dialogue and given the opportunity of providing their opinions on the content of the document. Participatory creation of public policies is one of the main principles proclaimedand followed by the Action Plan. In addition, the Advisory Board for the OGP Initiative comprising of representatives of the Government, ministries, and the third sector has been established. There has been a broad debate with representatives of non-governmental organizations across regions in
Slovakia and comments of respective ministries have been included in the document.
1 Some public administration bodies, e.g. local government bodies or their contributory institutions are required to publish contracts on their own websites, not on the Central Register of Contracts.
2 Prime Minister Radičová said “the assessment of institutions of adopted anti-corruption mechanisms during my term in office are considered above standard not only within the Visegrad Group, but also in Europe.” The Open Government Partnership is an important step towards transparency and in a fight against corruption in the Slovak Republic. The Action Plan aims to propose specific actions necessary to maintain the position of Slovakia among the international elite in the field of open governance and fight against corruption. Following the 12-month implementation cycle of the Action Plan, an evaluation process will take place in order to produce a Report on the Open Government Initiative prepared by independent experts and focused on the evaluation of the Action Plan commitments. The Government will also provide its internal evaluation of the Action Plan.
Open Government Efforts to date in the Slovak Republic
In the course of recent months, the actions of the Government of the Slovak Republic have been focused on the fight against corruption, not only increasing transparency of public authorities and enhancing their effectiveness, but also on intensifying dialogues with representatives of the private and public sector. The Government of the Slovakia fully addresses the issues mentioned above in its Government Manifesto adopted in August 2010 and is committed to enforce a modern, transparent and structured policy. “The Government of Slovakia is aware that an open approach of public institutions towards citizens is the best way to secure public trust in the state and its institutions.
2 “One of the principles to change the culture of politics is the transparency in the decision-making processes enabling public control including the access to information and the disclosure of information.
3. “With respect to property owned by the State, public institutions and self-governing bodies, the Government of Slovakia has committed to enforce transparent transactions and tenders (public tenders, auctions).
4. “The public sector has begun to procure contracts in a more transparent way and started to use the public competitions methods more consistently. Act No. 58/2011 amending Act No. 25/2006 on Public Procurement and on Amendment and Supplement to Certain Acts as amended has been adopted. Between June 2010 and June 2011, 73% procurements were awarded in tenders (open and restricted tenders)
5. At the same time, the amount of contracts awarded in the least open method, negotiated procedure, has dropped from 30 to 20% of the total amount of contracts awarded in the public administration sector. The average
2 Manifesto of the Government of the Slovak Republicfor 2010-2014, http://www.vlada.gov.sk/data/files/18_programove-vyhlasenie-2010.pdf
3 The term “access” and “accessibility” is understood not only as an opportunity to gain access to information, but also as accessibility for disabled persons enabling them to use such information directly or through assistance technologies.
4 Ibid.
5 Transparency International Slovakia: The Government of the Prime Minister Radičová has successfully restarted combating the corruption. http://www.transparency.sk/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/TS-Hodnotenie-Radicovej-Rok-Prvy.pdf
3 Number of tenderers per one tender went up from 1.7 to 2.5 tenderer in the given period
6. In 2011, the Public Procurement Act was amended to reduce the limits for below threshold and subliminal contracts, a new provision as to what legal entities may act as contracting authorities was added. Ministries and public companies have started to use electronic auctions more often. The Government also aims to increase the transparency of public funds. According to the Government Manifesto, the state budget has to provide all material in a clear form to clearly inform the public on the use of public funds. Act No. 507/2010 on the Property of Municipalities and Act No. 524/2010 on the Provision of Grants have been adopted within the powers of the Government Office of Slovakia.
The Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family of the Slovak Republic has adopted Act No. 544/2010 Coll. on Grants within the powers of the The Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family of the Slovak Republic. The Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic also established an information website www.rozpocet.sk.
One the most significant achievements is the setup of the Central Register of Contracts. The Central Register of Contracts (CRC) provides a list of contracts concluded by ministries, state administration bodies, public bodies and their subordinate organizations since 1 January 2011. All such contracts have to be published in the Register and only enter into force the next day following their publication in the CRC (Act No. 546/2010 Coll. amending Act No.40/1964 Coll., the Civil Code, as amended and Amending and Supplementing Certain Acts ). On 10 August 2011, the Government of Slovakia adopted Resolution No. 517 on the Anti-Corruption Strategy Plan in the Slovak Republic. The Strategy Plan describes and defines areas of the most frequent corruption activities and identifies areas that need to be developed further to reflect conditions of individual ministries and institution s in order to define specific tasks and deadlines for their fulfillment. An inter-ministerial working group of experts for fight against corruption has also been set up. Since May 2011, an anti-corruption telephone line of the Government Office of Slovakia has been established so that citizens can call to report suspicions or allegations of corruption in any public area. Until February 2012, 744 citizens called the anti-corruption line and reported 136 suspicions of corruption. Thirty one suspicions were forwarded to the Anti-Corruption agency and 71 suspicions were dismissed, as they did not involve corruption. Most suspicions of corruption reported to the anti-corruption line con cerned the Police Corps of Slovakia, prosecutors’ office, and local government bodies and courts. In the field of open public policy, the Ministry of Justice of the Slovak Republic has prepared a series of legislative proposals in consultation with representatives of non-governmental organizations.
The Ministry has thereby addressed the necessity to enhance transparency, open the Ministry more to the public and engage representatives of the civil society in the process of establishing the legislation concerning the Ministry of Justice and in the monitoring of decision-making of courts and self-governing judicial bodies. Non-governmental organizations have been engaged through consultations, interdepartmental consulting procedures, and the establishment of working groups and participation in workshops. The judicial system reform focused on active publication of court rulings, public selection procedures for judges and presidents of courts, and disclosure of informationon actions taken by the Judicial Council has been highly praised. The most important legislative actions in this area include the adoption of Act No. 495/2010 amending Act No. 185/2002 on the Judicial Council of the Slovak Republic and on Amendment and Supplement to Certain Acts as
6 Ibid.
4
amended, Act No. 33/2011 amending Act No. 385/2000 on Judges and Assessors and on Amendment and Supplement to Certain Acts together with Act No. 467/2011. Within the judicial system reform, the Ministry of Justice of the Slovak Republic has also thoroughly reworked the evaluation system of judges with the possibility of terminating a term of office of a judge when a judge receives three negative evaluations. In addition, a possibility of comparing the performance of individual judges in Slovakia has been introduced through annual statistical reports of judges published on an annual basis. Comparable system changes have been also introduced in the prosecutor’s office (public selection procedures, disclosure and declassification of decisions made by the prosecutor’s office). In the area of tightening up the rules for awarding governmental grants, the National Council of Slovakia adopted for example Act No. 524/2010 on the Provision of Grants under the powers of the Government Office of Slovakia which lays down the purpose, requirements, scope, and the method and control of the grant provisions. This Act also governs the eligibility of applicants, procedure for submitting applications, and the method for the provision of grants and management control. The adoption of Act No. 116/2011 which amends Act No. 528/2008 on the Aid and Support provided by the European Community Funds as amended, has facilitated higher transparency of the allocation of European Union funds.
In the field of education, an amendment to the Act on Universities (Act No.6/2011 Coll. amending Act No. 131/2002 Coll. on Universities and on Amendment and Supplement to Certain Acts as amended) has been adopted, which lays down the obligation to publish theses on the Internet to lower the degree of plagiarism and to promote the use of these works to be put into practice. The Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sports of the Slovak Republic has also published unemployment rates of university graduates. In the field of social affairs, the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family of the Slovak Republic, as the governing authority of the Operational Programme for Employment and Social Inclusion, has adopted a set of measures that convinced the European Commission to amend the EC audit rank of Slovakia from 3 to 2 in December 2011. These actions include, for example, disclosing information about supported projects, enhancing transparency in the evaluation of projects or publishing common rules for beneficiaries to ensure an unbiased approach towards all beneficiaries.
The OGP Action Plan of the Slovak Republic proposes actions for the period of 2012 and 2013.
The Action Plan primarily addresses the state administration bodies and not local government bodies. Therefore, no tasks arise for the latter in this respect; however, their voluntary participation in the OGP is welcome. With reference to the internal and external evaluation of the Action Plan, a new Action Plan will be created for the period foll owing the implementation period.
5 Commitments Proposed for 2012–2013
A. OPEN INFORMATION
Active disclosure of information and data at the disposal of public authorities and public institutions to the general public gradually becomes the standard method of communication between governments and citizens and is the key element of our commitment within the OGP Initiative. There is a global trend in governments disclosing high quality data to the maximum possible degree without attempting to evaluate the usefulness of the data for the citizens. Experience from other countries disclosing information and data confirms that open data stimulate activity and creativity of companies, non-governmental organizations, and citizens who start developing applications and innovative services based on the data. Such an approach reduces the amount of requirements placed on state and public administration in the provision of many services. For example, it decreases the number of applications within the disclosure of information pursuant to Act No. 211/2000 on Free Access to Information, as well as the number of requirements related to the e-government and services employing new technologies.
It suffices for the public administration to provide high quality information (with the exception of confidential statistical data obtained in accordance with Act No. 540/2001 on the State Statistics as amended), the private sector, and non-governmental organizations and citizens develop user-friendly concepts and applications. Foreign experience also shows that public administration bodies become some of the most frequent users of the published data and newly developed applications. They get easy access to high quality data of other ministries through a comprehensive data catalogue.
A 1. Open Data Portal – data.gov.sk
The setup of the Central Register of Contracts (CRC) has been the first and foremost step of information disclosure in Slovakia. The CRC enables citizens to monitor the allocation of state funds.
This is the highest ranked action among experts, personalities, and non-governmental organizations.
Following and building on the Central Register of Contracts and the planned Central Register of Projects funded from repayable and non-repayable financial assistance from public funds (Resolution No. 689/2011 of the Government of the Slovak Republic), the Open Data Portal “data.gov.sk” aims to provide data to the public. Yet it goes beyond the CRC intention by creating a specific portal for collecting data at the disposal of the public administration bodies in Slovakia. The data will be provided in a standardized form to enable further processing, either automated or through development of applications to be used directly by citizens. The major difference is that the Open Data Portal is not a standard website providing various data. It is a catalogue of available public administration data that will be accessible on the portal and enabled for further computer processing. This means that the portal will provide information regarding the location of data required by citizens, business persons or the public administration for further processing. It is a unique and innovative portal, which has not to this date been implemented in Slovakia, but provides better access to data at the disposal of public administration bodies.
Slovak Republic 2012
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