Although the Law “On Access to Public Information” was adopted more than a decade ago, its implementation is still fraught with many difficulties. Local self-government bodies often find it challenging to set up efficient processes to ensure access to public information. The final STEPS event — “Organisation of Access to Public Information in Local Self-Government Bodies” — discussed what these challenges are exactly and how to ensure sustainable and capable performance of local self-government in this direction.
Relevant challenges and advantages
The feedback of the participants of STEPS revealed a multitude of diverse challenges. Some municipal specialists noted difficulties at the stage of document registration and its identification as an appeal or as an inquiry for information (often these are combinations of the two). Another challenge is horizontal communication with other divisions when preparing a response, as well as the timeliness of its provision. Furthermore, the publication of information on websites still causes difficulties for many local self-government bodies for technical reasons and due to a lack of qualified employees.
According to Oksana Vashchuk-Ohdanska, Expert on Access to Public Information, despite the martial law in effect in Ukraine, the Law of Ukraine “On Access to Public Information” is still the main reference point in providing access to public information.
“If the law does not provide guidance for a specific situation, refer to the Convention of the Council of Europe on Access to Official Documents (Tromsø Convention). You can also refer to Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Administrative Court of Ukraine No. 10 dated 29 September 2016. Case law is often useful as well,” said the expert.
In any case, local self-government should prioritise the application of a given provision in the process of ensuring access to public information. Other priorities, as was stressed by Oksana Vashchuk-Ohdanska, all stem from this. These priorities include:
- Ensuring the transparency and openness of public authorities and creating mechanisms for exercising the rights to access public information for everyone;
- Presumption of openness of information;
- Principle of simplifying the procedure for submitting an inquiry and obtaining information.
The magic key: systemic processes are the way to sustainability
According to the expert, today the sustainable and capable performance of local self-government in the field of access to public information is among its priority tasks. There are two important factors in order for the system to run smoothly in each individual case: properly trained practitioners and well-written by-laws at the level of local self-government.
“These components must be implemented in synergy. A major problem of public administration in Ukraine is often said to be the lack of institutional memory, insufficiently developed mechanisms, and we have to invent solutions for any problem from scratch over and over again,” said Oksana Vashchuk-Ohdanska.
The fine-tuning of the mechanism itself has its own procedure, which the expert explained in 5 steps:
- Present urgent issues to the senior officials of local self-government and get their support;
- Form a working group that would include representatives of various departments and agree on an action plan (fix it “on paper”);
- Conduct self-monitoring of access to public information in all departments and record any problems;
- Jointly draw up an action plan to ensure proper access to information in local self-government;
- Clearly divide implementation responsibilities; regularly check the progress and make adjustments as necessary.
Properly published public information is the foundation for building trust between the public and authorities in the municipality:
“A working mechanism of the publication of information in the municipality will serve as a barrier against bad actors on both sides. On the one hand, it disciplines officials who understand that their every decision will be made public on the website or provided upon inquiry, so they will think twice before making any statements. On the other hand, it prevents the unscrupulous actions of public activists and politicians who want to distort information about the work of the local self-government bodies and use it for their own agenda.”
Mykhailo Shelep of the Regional Office of U-LEAD with Europe in the Rivne Oblast highlighted another aspect of access to public information in the local self-government. He believes that it is in the local self-government’s interest to raise public awareness of what public information is and where it can be found on the website of a local self-government body:
“Inquiries are also a communication tool. And if there are inquiries on certain topics, this is a pain point for the community. Instead of waiting to receive them, be proactive. If you publish certain information yourself, it will become normalised and accessible instead of being a cause of outrage or emergency. The tension will ease up. By working with your community in this way, you will ensure a better understanding with the public. Then this tool, public information, will be mutually beneficial for both the public and local self-government.”
Public information is a component of understanding that the government body is transparent, works openly, and that the community and the authorities are partners working towards a common goal.
U-LEAD’s eight-week course “Steps for Specialists. Organisation of Access to Public Information in Local Self-Government Bodies” was aimed at enhancing professional competencies regarding the application of international and national standards for ensuring the right to information, learning how to organise and implement the proper provision of access to public information, as well as mastering the skills of lawful restriction of access to information under martial law. 50 municipal officials from all over Ukraine joined the training programme, two-thirds of whom represent rural and settlement municipalities.
