Central Catalogue of the Official Documentation (HR0049)

Which public issue does the measure address? Act on the Right to Access Information defines the Central Catalogue of the Official Documentation of the Republic of Croatia as a publicly accessible tool on the Internet that provides users with permanent, free and open access to official documents of public authorities in one place. This way the interested public can achieve the basic principles of the Act on the Right to Access Information. In the Croatian Act on the Right to Access Information, the Central Catalogue of the Official Documentation of the Republic of Croatia (hereinafter: The Central Catalogue) represents one of the ways of exercising the right to access information. The Central Catalogue is a form of proactive publication of information, thereby achieving better administrative transparency in the sense that public authorities can publish official information through the Central Catalogue even before receiving an individual request for specific information. In accordance with Article 10a of the Act, public authorities submit their documents to the Central Catalogue, where they are further enriched with metadata (additional data describing the document), in order to make them more reachable and searchable. On the Central Catalogue portal, documents can be searched, viewed, and downloaded. The Central Catalogue consists of legal regulations, international treaties, official gazettes of units of local and regional self-government and other documents and publications of public authorities (the publication of which is not in the official gazettes, and the bodies develop them in accordance with the obligations provided for in the regulations governing their activity or obligations to the founder). In addition to the documents stored in the Central Catalogue, data on legislative, executive and judicial authorities, public sector institutions, diplomatic representations, commercial companies of special state interest and local and regional self-government bodies are also available within the Central Catalogue portal. In addition, information on persons who have held or currently hold office or high offices in public authorities, party offices and party parliamentary mandates in the Croatian Parliament are also available. For the purpose of organising data and fast and targeted search of databases and collections, a single national documentation conceptual system for a harmonised content processing of official information sources is being developed and maintained, the backbone of which is the Croatian edition of Eurovoc, a multilingual multidisciplinary thesaurus of the European Union. Documents and other information within the Central Catalogue are currently available through three different search engines, the entry requires work in online databases, a number of specially created IT applications and databases are in use, two CMS are used, there is a lack of automation and connectivity of applications and databases, lack of automation of control mechanisms, and data collection is not automated. Therefore, the project of improving the Central Catalogue was launched in 2018. The implementation of the EU project "Establishment of an Integral System for the Management of Official Documentation of the Republic of Croatia" in the Central State Office for the Development of the Digital Society will ensure better management of official documentation, better availability of documents to end-users, development of a search engine for searching official documents as a recognizable Croatian product and better information of information officers about legal obligations in accordance with the Act on the Right to Access Information.

What does the measure include? The measure includes the improvement of the Central Catalogue i.e. the system for the management of official documentation and information of the Republic of Croatia and the training of the information officers on the legal obligation of submitting to the Central Catalogue as well as on the use of the improved system (delivery and search of the Central Catalogue).

How does the measure contribute to resolving the public issue? The improvement of the Central Catalogue enables a higher level of openness, transparency and availability of official documents and information on the work of public authorities through the permanent availability and possibility of reusing public official documents and information of the Republic of Croatia to all interested parties on equal terms, impartially and free of charge. Expected results of the implementation: • An integrated system for managing official documents of the Republic of Croatia with an improved search engine for finding and downloading official documentation established • Improved knowledge of civil and public servants on the obligations arising from the Act on the Right to Access Information related to the Central Catalogue • Continuous training enabled for officials on the application of the Act on the Right to Access Information, obligations and ways of its enforcement through the E-learning System

Why is this measure relevant to the values of the Open Government Partnership? Starting from the fact that the documents of public authorities are the "property" of citizens, this measure aims to ensure a higher level of openness and availability of official documents and information through the Central Catalogue of Official Documentation of the Republic of Croatia, which, in accordance with the Act on the Right to Access Information, is one of the ways of proactive publication of information.

Activities: Implementation start date: Implementation end date:

9.1. Improving the Central Catalogue (improving the system of managing official documents of the Republic of Croatia with an improved search engine for finding and downloading official documentation) Underway December 2022

9.2. Conducting trainings on the use of an improved Central Catalogue (delivery and searching) January 2022 December 2022

9.3. Enabling continuous training for officials on the application of the Act on the Right to Access Information in terms of the Central Catalogue, as well as the obligations and ways of its enforcement through the E-learning System February 2022 December 2022

Number and title of activities: 9.1. Improving the Central Catalogue (improving the system of managing official documents of the Republic of Croatia with an improved search engine for finding and downloading official documentation) Co-leaders: academic community (University of Zagreb - Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, Text Analysis and Knowledge Engineering Lab) Implementation indicators: - Developed and integrated modules for optimising business processes of the Central Catalogue through the development of the software system for managing official documents and information - The semantic search engine of the Central Catalogue and the automatic semantic analysis of the document improved 55 The baseline value of result indicators: By July 2021: part of the module developed and integrated into the system for managing documents, part of it has been developed but has not been tested Module of the semantic search engine - production prototype completed. Module for semantic indexing of documents - test model completed. Internal modules of the semantic search engine - laboratory models developed. Source of data and frequency of data collection: Websites of the project Financial resources required (Source of funding and planned resources): Resources are assured from the State Budget, section 034 Central State Office for the Development of the Digital Society, activity A912005 - Platform for the Central Catalogue from the European Social Fund - Establishment of an integral system for the management of the official documentation of the Republic of Croatia, in the amount of HRK 35,000.00 in 2022 (source 12: HRK 5,250.00; source 561: HRK 29,750.00). Implementation start date and implementation deadline: Underway – December 2022

Number and title of activities: 9.2. Conducting trainings on the use of an improved Central Catalogue (delivery and searching) Implementation indicators: - Conducted 26 workshops for information officers on the use of an improved Central Catalogue The baseline value of result indicators: Workshops on the use of an improved system will start upon the establishment of the new system for managing documentation. Source of data and frequency of data collection: Websites of the project Financial resources required (Source of funding and planned resources): Resources are assured from the State Budget, section 034 Central State Office for the Development of the Digital Society, activity A912005 - Platform for the Central Catalogue from the European Social Fund - Establishment of an integral system for the management of the official documentation of the Republic of Croatia, in the amount of HRK 20,000.00 in 2022 (source 12: HRK 3,000.00; source 561: HRK 17,000.00). Implementation start date and implementation deadline: January 2022 – December 2022

Number and title of activities: 9.3. Enabling continuous training for officials on the application of the Act on the Right to Access Information in terms of the Central Catalogue, as well as the obligations and ways of its enforcement through the E-learning System 56 Implementation indicators: - A permanently available E-learning system intended for information officers, which will contain educational materials on the exercise of the right to access information through the Central Catalogue. The baseline value of result indicators: One promotional video about the Central Catalogue produced Source of data and frequency of data collection: Websites of the project Financial resources required (Source of funding and planned resources): Resources are assured from the European Social Fund within the Operational Programme "Efficient Human Resources" 2014-2020. activity A912005 - Platform for the Central Catalogue from the European Social Fund - Establishment of an Integral System for the Management of the Official Documentation of the Republic of Croatia in the amount of HRK 5,000.00 in 2022 (sources 1, 2 and 8: HRK 750.00 and other sources: HRK 4,250.00). Implementation start date and implementation deadline: February 2022 – December 2022

Action Plan Review

Commitment 9. Improving the Central Catalog of Official Documentation

● Verifiable: Yes

● Does it have an open government lens? Yes

● Potential for results: Modest