Skopje, 24 January 2023 (MIA) – At a session Tuesday, the Government adopted an Initiative submitted by Deputy PM for good governance policies, Slavica Grkovska, obliging public sector institutions to increase the amount of publicly available information on their websites, which will drastically improve their transparency and accountability.

“Following an analysis of the information requested by citizens, media and the civil sector, Deputy PM Grkovska’s Office, in cooperation with the Agency for Protection of the Right to Free Access to Public Information and the Center for Change Management, prepared a guideline on improving the transparency of public sector institutions , which contains data on the most commonly requested information by the citizens divided in 37 areas,” said the Government in a press release.

According to the press release, all holders of information are required to publish them within six months, systematized by areas as indicated in the Guideline.

Deputy PM Grkovska noted that this will improve the transparency of the institutions, provide easier access to public information, and increase the monitoring of the work done by public institutions.

Tuesday’s Government conclusion instructs the ministries, the bodies within the ministries, the independent state administration bodies, public enterprises established by the Government, state-owned joint-stock companies, as well as other holders of information, to publish within 15 days of the adoption of the Initiative all information from Article 10 of the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Character, that they haven’t published yet, and to regularly update already published information on a monthly basis.

At the same time, all holders of information should publish the anonymized requests for access to information of public character on their websites, along with the answers they have provided to the requester, so that they can be reused by other natural or legal persons.

“All holders of information are obliged, no later than six months since the adoption of this Initiative, to place a banner titled ‘information of public character’ at a visible place on their websites, which will lead to the information of public character,” said the Government. ad/nn/