Projects

Title of the project: "Public Information Database - www.opendata.ge"

Funded by the Open Society Georgia Foundation

Project Budget- $59,978.43

Duration of the Project -12 months.

In March 2011 Institute for Development of Freedom of Information launched a project “Public Information Database – www.opendata.ge“. It is planned to refine and develop the information web-portal within the framework of project, which is the continuance of the project named “Public information on-line database – Public information registry”(pilot project) implemented in 2010 by the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information.

The existing resource database enables the population of Georgia, press and media means, non-governmental and international organizations to observe freedom of information dissemination in a real-time format and conduct an on-line auditing of reports, plans of development, use of budget funds etc. of the authorities.

Within the framework of project IDFI will create and develop information web-portal which shall permanently display public information officially requested from public authorities for the following purposes:

• the increase in rate of transparency and accountability of public authorities;
• the promotion of the efficiency and transparency of public finance expenditure;
• the promotion of freedom of information development via establishment of e-democracy standards;
• the improvement of public control over public authorities via the involvement of the population, non-governmental sector and media;
• the increase in rate of public awareness and engagement within the decision-making process by public authorities.

The Strategy of Project Implementation is the Following:

• the development of unified FoI public information web-resource;
• the establishment of up-to-date and socially significant public information database on the basis of unified FoI information web-resource;
• the permanent update of the Internet database via public information request and other means of public information collection;
• the permanent process of informing the society/international organizations on information resources of Internet database.
• For the purposes of implementation of the abovementioned strategy IDFI plans to take the following steps: 

Information Update of Database

• the regular update of web-pageand the refinement of English version of the web-page;
• The request for various types of public information held by public authorities of Georgia (more than 150 public authorities - state bodies of executive, legislative and judicial branches of government, legal entities of public law, independent regulatory bodies, representative and executive bodies of local self-government, Administration of South Ossetia, governors’ administrations)on the basis of already established practice.

Coalition Activity

The partner organizations of project (Transparency International Georgia, Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association, Open Society Georgia Foundation, Green Alternative) shall be involved in the activities of IDFI as well as in the process of implementation of pilot project, which will provide IDFI with the public information requested and collected by them.

Technological Improvement of the Web-page

• the refinement and improvement of integrated technical and visual data;
• the visualization of data of high social importance by means of establishing specially designed software;
• the integration of project statistics in web-page by means of the software and establishment of other web 2.0 innovations.

Proactive Social Lobbying of the Unified Database

Permanent provision of information to the society about data uploaded to web-resource by means of the following proactive strategies: the use of social networks, permanent involvement and provision with information to the member journalists’ working group of the institute media club, the co-ordinated activity of non-governmental sector, social polls, the co-operation with international non-governmental sector.

The Compilation of Resonant Cases, the Initiation of Lawsuits and Claims and the Support of Their Publicity

In case of non-disclosure of public information, the act of ignoring of request to release the public information or incomplete public information provision by the public authority the corresponding administrative claims shall be filed by the institute.  The resonant cases shall be compiled on cases of high importance. The compiled resonant cases shall be disseminated by means of media and press.  In addition, the social nominations shall be assigned for the most non-public and non-transparent state bodies.

Publications Prepared and Issued within the Framework of Project

The publication of quarterly (once in three months) public information request report. In addition, the description of negative practice revealed in the process of public information request within the period of three months. The annual public information request report shall total the results of yearly activity, statistics, tendencies and practice.

The preparation and issue of the Freedom of Information Guidebook.The guidebook shall comprise the existing FoI legislation, the descriptive and definitive issues concerning public information and public authorities, the procedures of request for public information and other corresponding type of information.   

Project Title: "Monitoring of Governmental Agencies Informational Recourses"

Project is financed by the Open Society Institute ($30 000.00) and the National Security Archive ($15 000.00)

Budget of the Project-$45 000.00

Duration of the project-6 months.

In July 2010 Institute for Development of Freedom of Information launched a project “Monitoring of Governmental Agencies Informational Recourses (official web-sites)”. Project is financed and supported by the Open Society Institute ($30 000.00) and the National Security Archive ($15 000.00).

Within the project the IDFI will provide auditing of official web-sites of state organizations to assess the level of their transparency and access to information. The project is the developing of the previous project that was initiated by the IDFI in 2009 (Auditing of Official Web-Sites of Executive Authorities (Ministries) of Georgia).

The Aim of the Project:

• To increase the degree of transparency of public institutions;
• To promote the development of freedom of information;
• To develop Electronic Governance in Georgia.

Long-term Objective of the Project:

• To promote the development of freedom of information and electronic governanceby auditing official web-sites of public institutions.

Overall objective:

• Promoting the development of freedom of information and electronic governance by auditing official web-sites of public institutions.

Strategy to follow:

• Auditing official web-sites of the public institutions of Georgia;
• Calculating and analyzing ratings by estimating the results of the auditing of the web-sites;
• Preparing recommendations for public institutions on freedom of information and efficient modes of electronic governance (and proactive lobbing for the changes);
• Preparing reports on the existing situation in the realm of freedom of information in Georgia.

To build a successful democratic state and civil society it is essential to have an open and transparent political system on the one hand and an active society aware of their duties and rights on the other. 

Good governance assumes the necessity of balancing interrelation between these two aspects. Maintain in the cohesive force that is required by society to integrate and follow state activities in a more interactive manner helps to strengthen state legitimacy and relations of trust between public officials and ordinary citizens.

Good governance cannot function without facilitating transparency, i.e. right to information. To facilitate transparency and accountability government first and foremost has to improve access to information and services for citizen and businesses.

In Georgia, where despite the rapidly growing web-space, the culture of electronic democracy is just emerging the need for monitoring these processes is especially critical and urgent.

Development of Georgian web-space will create conditions for full realization of citizen's right to search, request, access and disseminate information. Empowering of people will help making our government more accountable and responsive to the demands and needs of the citizens.

It is due to the above factors that addressing the issue of freedom of information remains a top priority and a vital component of our organization’s strategy.Institute for Development of Freedom of Information continues to execute and advance a project (Monitoring of Governmental Agencies' Informational Recourses)developed last year which aims to facilitate citizens' access to information and enabling e-governance in the country.

Although the newly established Institute was not that famous in the NGO sector when the pilot-project was finished, the outcomes of the project and the work done was met with a big interest. This can be explained with the several factors.  First of all this is the innovative idea, because this was the first case in Georgia when the accent was so distinctly made on the transparency of the governmental web-space. Also, we must take in consideration the fact, that generally a new Georgian society is being involved more actively in the Internet reality. If before  Internet was only the source of exchange of information, now time by time it is becoming to be used as the exchange of various social-economic services.

The main goal of the project is to support the development of transparent informational space in Georgia by undertaking research activities and analysis on the Georgian governmental web-space. The first auditing carried out by the Institute covered only the Ministries of Georgia, while research undertaken within a framework of current project is targeted on presenting a wider picture about governmental web-space to the Georgian society. An estimated number of over 45 official web-sites of state agencies will undergo a thorough audit by our Legal Expert team. General picture will show the real existing problems and the comparative analysis will put forward those of tendencies for establishing e-governance and electronic democracy in Georgia. 

The main challenge of this project is not just to undertake monitoring and evaluation activities and to present the general picture of the Georgian governmental web-space, but to achieve real changes according to plans of the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information. With that in mind the strategy of the research is targeted on creation of a concrete environment for developing of web-space between governmental structures. By establishing and maintaining an interactive channel of communication with monitored public institutions this project aims to raise the sense of internal competition between the governmental bodies, consequently resulting in a positive shift towards developed within the web-space.

Executive Strategy

Purpose of the primary study conducted by the Institute was to find out as to what extent the state information resources are available and what portion of information is published on official web-sites of state authorities. Besides, qualitative indices of published information were rather important. At the initial stage of the study, only assessment was made aimed at detection of common challenges and existing shortcomings.

The strategy of current project has remained intact in its essence however it is now based on more proactive methods. Accents are now made not only on the relations with the state institutions but also on the civil participation. An interactive strategy is based on three components. It is oriented on:cultivating productive working relations with state structures; actuating media and expert resources;and on those of social networks for active public participation.

By the completion of each monitoring session preliminary results and a short recommendation list is sent to the government agency to encourage and develop a functional co-operative engagement on the basis of web improvement initiatives.

To achieve a wider media and expert interest the Institute is preparing the electronic bulletin and publishing it on the IDFI web-site. The Institute is then sending the electronic bulletin to the interested research centers and institutions, nongovernmental organizations, international organizations and foundations, and media sector.

Spreading of the monitoring results to a wider public using a number of social networks (namely Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/IDFI/111225785601207, blogs and Internet forums) is effective in raising the interest and awareness among the citizens and enables a better public participation in discussions of the issue.

Project Title: Public information on-line database Public information registry

Funded by the Open Society Georgia Foundation

Project Budget: $26,972.19

Duration of the Project – 6 months.

In September 2010 Institute for Development of Freedom of Information lunches a project “Public information on-line resource database – Public information registry”. An online resource database of public information developed in the framework of this project will enable the population of Georgia, press and media means, non-governmental and international organizations to observe freedom of information dissemination in a real-time format and conduct an on-line auditing of agencies’ operations, proposals and use of budget funds.

The Aim of the Project:

• To improve the level of transparency and accountability of the government agencies. To show support in respect to increasing the efficiency and transparency of public financial expenditures;
• To facilitate the development of freedom of information through adopting modern standards of electronic democracy;
• To enhance public control over government agencies through active engagement of the population, non-governmental sector and media.

Transparency and accountability of government structures, participation of the civil society and media in the planning and decision making process, enhancement of mutual trust between society and government – all these concepts are in direct connection with the modern e-Governance. Together with the advance of information and communication technologies, Internet has become an effective tool of government control.

In the modern world, Internet plays a pivotal role in making interactions between the government and the rest of the society easier. It supports governing transparency and allows a constant control over the governmental activities. With Internet, usage of official web-pages of governmental institutions became optimal way of a direct interrelationship between governmental structures and the society. 

Despite the rapidly developing Georgian web-space, there is an evident lack of progress on electronic democracy manifested by the scarcely presented public information on official web-sites. Therefore filling the informational vacuum by creating informational resources will mean a major step toward fulfillment of citizens' fundamental rights – to search, to request, and to freely access public information.

For this reason the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information funded by The Open Society - Georgia Foundation launches a new project “Public information on-line resource database – Public information registry”.  An on-line public information database can become one of the effective tools for increasing transparency and accountability of the government sector. Its ability to frequently update information could be viewed as yet another way of the public control. An on-line resource database of public information will enable the population of Georgia, press and media means, non-governmental and international organizations to observe tendencies of the freedom of information dissemination in a real-time format as well as conduct an on-line auditing of different agencies' operations, proposals, use of budget funds, dynamics of growth and other subjects. An on-line public information resource database should have an advanced search option that is structured based on the list of public institutions and thematic topics.  

The database will cover a wide range of topics and will incorporate public information resources of government institutions. In each thematic section of the website we will display public information released by different government agencies – public officials' asset declarations, budget, state programs, payroll funds, announced auctions and tenders, statistics of the public information release, premise and reserve funds of various inter-agencies, financial statements of executed and proposed projects, staff employee ratio, expenditures, projects planned or executed by the government agencies and other information. The user will be able to locate needed information in the relevant thematic bloc as well as by pointing the concrete government agency.

Institute's Expert team will undertake statutory consultations with other non-governmental organizations and foundations working in the relevant field (IT Georgia, GLYA, OSGF). In this collaborative efforts the Institute will: conduct a thorough analysis of the Georgian legislation on public information; will develop a database of the governmental and non-governmental public information; will undertake a comparative study of the international experience on the issue, analyzing its functionality and development, will conduct project media poles (during the meetings and through the on-line questionnaires) to identify the most pressing public information issues. Based on the conducted study the Institute’s expert team will build an on-line public information resource database. Registry's search option will allow users to locate needed information by using the thematic search as well as with the drop-down list of the government institutions.

One of the goals of the project is to ensure that the web resource database if continuously updated. An informational acquisition method of the public information on-line registry will be based on four components: methodical requests for public information from the state agencies; obtaining the public information through the collaboration with the state authorities; displaying the public information already obtained by other non-governmental organizations and through the regular monitoring of the government agencies’ official web pages conducted by the IDFI.

In terms of its information completeness and recency the resource database should develop in three steps, among which the priority is given to the public information of the Georgian government’s executive institutions – the ministries.  During the following steps the resource database will further expand to include public information obtained from the Georgian government agencies, sub-agencies, regional governments, municipalities, self-governing agencies and government trustees.

For the purpose of development of freedom of information a coordinated work of the non-governmental sector is especially important. The public information resource database developed in the framework of the project can serve as a platform for such collaboration. Non-governmental organizations participating in the project will request high priority public information (such as excessive spending by the government agencies) in a coordinating manner based on their experience and research work. In the case of unlawfully delaying the release of public information, it will file civil lawsuit against the violator (GYLA). Filed cases will become public with the help of mass media and the press. In the case of a denial to release public information, corresponding coalition conclusions will be made and distributed among the public through the use of the media and press. At the same time, base on the files cases the least public and the least transparent agencies will be nominated.

Georgian press and media are considered to be main beneficiaries of project and of the public information resource database created within its framework. It is them who should benefit from the accessibility of public information and it is them who should use it as a tool of public control over government. Therefore it is very important to take into consideration opinions of the media representatives when developing the resource database. An active collaboration with the media and exchange of experience will be especially beneficial to both sides. This will help in developing the strategy and tactical plan for making the project a constantly renewing and interactive public domain. To assist such development a media club will be established and the journalists interested in freedom of information issues will be invited. Meetings of the media club will be conducted on a regular basis which will help to increase publications and media investigations on the discussed subject.

“Publishing of the Collection of Archival Documents” (Archival Documents in Relation with the Events Developing in Georgia from the 5th to the 9th of March of the Year of 1956. - 4950 Euro

(Project is supported by the Heinrich Böll Foundation South Caucasus Regional Office and Financed by the Embassy of Switzerland to Georgia)

With a joint project the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information, The Archive Administration of Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia, with the support of the Heinrich Böll Foundation South Caucasus Regional Office, financed by the Embassy of Switzerland in Georgia will work on the project “Publishing of the Collection of Archival Documents” (Archival Documents in Relation with the Events Developing in Georgia from the 5th to the 9th of March of the Year of 1956. Project Budget is 4950 EURO.

The Institute for the Development of Freedom of Information (the IDFI), which aims at the development of archive business in Georgia by making careful studies of the documents and afterwards by publishing those documents in periodicals, has agreed with the above-mentioned Administration of MIA of Georgia to invite qualified scholars to study the archive documents in many ways and afterwards to publish them as subject periodicals.      

Within the frameworks of the project, the scholars guided and supported by the IDFI and the Archive administration of ministry of internal affairs of Georgia will search for, select, examine and study related documents. The selected documents will be published in collection periodicals strictly according to the originals and will be accompanied by explanations of scholars and related vocabulary. The electronic version of the publication will be uploaded on IDFI web-page and will be accessible for everyone by internet.

Such a collection of documents will enable both scholars and the society in general to get to know and understand the real environment of the Soviet way of being, which for almost 70 years was hidden and known as classified information. The first collection of works will be dedicated to the events developed in the 5-9 March of 1956 when soviet troops execute first antigovernment riots in Soviet Union. Due to lack of information, it is not known till now, what was the realm of these events. Was this just the protest of the Georgian society against Nikita Khrushchev’s new policy against the Personal Cult of Stalin or the protest with ethnic content? Most of the history of Soviet Georgia is still unstudied and the series of the publication of archival documents will help to fill that gap.

Contract

Project Title: Auditing of Official Web-Sites of Executive Authorities (Ministries) of Georgia-

Project Funded: the National Security Archive (George Washington University)

Project budget: $10 000.00

The Institute for Development of Freedom of Information worked on the project “Auditing of Official Web-Sites of Executive Authorities (Ministries) of Georgia, which was support and funded by the National Security Archive (George Washington University- $10 000).

In the framework of the project, the IDFI working group and invited experts of the Institute made research on Electronic Government in the world, the level and challenges of E-government, legislation about internet transparency and E-governance in Georgia. The IDFI working group performed an auditing of the official web-sites of the Ministries of Georgia, made a detailed analysis and assessed the level of transparency of the web-sites and introduced a ranking scale of the Ministries according to the level of transparency.

Please see the report of the project…

Auditing of Official Web-Sites of Executive Authorities of Georgia  

Well-informed citizen is a foundation of a free community. Transparency of government activities is the best prerequisite for development of a country and accountability of state authorities before people.

Under the legislation of Georgia, requirements set in view of freedom of information apply to all state and self-governing bodies and institutions. Despite liberal laws, level of transparency of state structures still remains inappropriate. In addition to this, people are not fully aware of their possibilities to demand, search an obtain information on their own lawful rights. Besides, in many cases, even public officials have no full knowledge of the law on freedom of information.

Availability of public information is the major precondition for raising the confidence between the society and the government and improving the quality of transparency of state authorities.

In the modern world, internet has significantly facilitated communications between the government and society, promoted transparency of administration and regular public control over activities of the state authorities. Public has become more actively involved in the executive and legislative initiatives and programs proposed by the government and actions planned or implemented by the same. This is particularly important for population residing far away from the center in the regions of the country.

Achievement of the modern world such as a new information reality should necessarily be reflected in the Georgian laws. For instance, under current Georgian legislation, state authorities and structures are not obliged to make their own web-portals in internet. Consequently, state structures act according to their good will or opinion. Respectively, contents of the official web-sites of state authorities are not regulated by any statutory acts and frequently, they do not provide socially important information.

While internet-transparency is the most considerable component for functioning of the modern and democratic state, the development of the Georgian web-space will significantly promote realization of citizens’ rights to search, obtain and disseminate information. Apart from this, the government itself will have a unique opportunity to enjoy immediate contact with the population.

Realization of concept of electronic power and electronic governance will truly yield many benefits for the young Georgian state. This will raise efficiency of state authorities and at the same time it will promote public transparency of the government.

According to preliminary studies conducted by the Institute, majority of web-sites of the Georgian government agencies publicize incomplete and often delayed information on their activities, resolutions and actions. At the regional level, there are even more problems. Most of municipal agencies do not have web-sites at all, while existing web-sites provide only a small portion of available information.  There is no common standard or resource-base.

Presented study is based on the methodology of monitoring the official web-sites of state agencies developed by the non-governmental, non-commercial organization “Institute for Development of Freedom of Information” operating in the Russian Federation (“ИнститутРазвитияСвободыИнформации”, Санкт-Петербург, РФ. www.svobodainfo.org). As a result of practical work through many years, the Institute has become well-experienced in monitoring of official web-sites of state agencies and evaluation of transparency. Along with the National Security Archive (The National Security Archive, George Washington University, Washington, DC. www.nsarchive.org), the Institute represents one of the first partners of our organization. Within the framework of a conference held in Telavi, Georgia through May 8-11, 2009 (http://freedominfo.org/news/20090522.htm), it was decided to set up a coalition of organizations (www.foi-eurasia.org) operating in the area of human rights and freedom of information across the former Soviet countries.

Methodology approved by the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information has been perfected and adapted to the Georgian reality. New approaches have been developed with consideration of competences and peculiarities of state executive agencies. We have also determined qualitative and quantitative characteristics of transparency of activities undertaken by the Georgian state executive agencies.

Purpose of the primary study conducted by the Institute was to find out as to what extent the state information resources are available and what portion of information is published on official web-sites of state authorities. Besides, qualitative indices of published information were rather important. At the initial stage of the study, only assessment was made aimed at detection of common challenges and existing shortcomings.

Web-sites of executive power were monitored (Initially, only web-sites of Ministries of Georgia). It is worth to note that official web-sites of two ministries, namely, Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure www.mrdi.gov.ge and Ministry of Culture, Protection of Monuments and Sport www.mcs.gov.ge were not functioning during monitoring (July-August, 2009) and it was impossible to conduct evaluation. Content analysis was made according to thematically grouped parameters classified into 11 blocks: 

Block 1 – General references and information on the state authority;

Block 2 – Structure of the state authority;

Block 3 – Data on information resources of the state authority;

Block 4 – Data about the activities of the state authority in the sphere of its major competence;

Block 5 – Legislation and statutory activity of the state authority;

Block 6 – A framework of activities of the state authority, in regards to supporting the implementation of the rights, freedoms and legal interests of legal and physical persons;

Block 7 – Information about ongoing tenders, auctions and commercial transactions taking place at the state authority;

Block 8 – Staff policy of the state authority;

Block 9 – Financial policy of the state authority;

Block 10 – 11 – Criteria for simplicity of information appropriation and additional important data.

As a result of analysis, it can be concluded that information placed on official web-sites of state authorities is of a general nature and does not provide complete opinion on all aspects of their activities for the user. Information, like use of budget funds, information on available information systems, full analysis and data on accomplished and planned operations, law-making activity and staff policy, is presented absolutely incompletely.

Most of state authorities fail to understand that the web-site is an effective device for dissemination of complete information on their activities and an available alternative/base for citizens and organizations to use state information resources.

In addition, it should be noted that state authorities yet are not using internet as an effective way for interactive communication with citizens and organizations.

The only state authority that is represented in the internet space in form of not only informative web-site, but also through state service web-portal, is the Ministry of Finance of Georgia. Considering this fact, it is yet too early to talk about modern interactive governance in Georgia.

In order to ensure that state authorities have their own official web-sites with high quality parameters, they need to meet the four principal criteria:

• Universally accepted technical parameters of the contents of web-sites;
• Meeting certain legal requirements of natural persons and legal entities through obtaining public information from the official web-sites;
• Conformity of site contents with legislative regulations governing availability of public information on activities of state authorities;
• Common approach of state authorities towards contents and structural composition of official web-sites.

Unfortunately, monitoring of official web-sites has proven that all examined web-sites have some shortcomings according to all four main criteria.

Institute for Development of Freedom of Information plans to continue its efforts in view of monitoring of official web-sites of state authorities.

Follow-up activities:

• To continue monitoring of web-sites of state executive authorities;
• To conduct monitoring of web-sites of legislative and court authorities;
• To conduct monitoring of web-sites of state sub-agency institutions and legal entities of public law;
• To conduct monitoring of web-sites of territorial agencies and municipalities;
• To initiate and support legislative changes aimed at introduction of up-to-date forms of electronic governance.

Detailed outcomes of monitoring and study of Georgian state web-space as well as developed recommendations will be published in the annual report of the Institute.

 Contract