Proactive Government Information (RS0059)

Brief description of the Commitment

This commitment implies the standardization of the content of the authorities' website, through the definition of all types of information that must be published. In that direction, the mandatory content would be prescribed by amendments to the Regulation on Detailed Conditions for the Creation and Maintenance of the Authorities’ Websites, based on the previous mapping of all types of information that the authorities are obliged to publish on their websites, in accordance with the current regulations, as well as in accordance with relevant international (comparative) standards, regarding the types of information that are available on the institutions' websites.

Problem Definition

1. What problem does the commitment aim to address? Citizens' right to information is a constitutional category as established under Article 51 of the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia ("Official Gazette of the RS", No. 98/06 and 115/21), which stipulates that "everyone shall have the right to access information kept by State bodies and organizations with delegated public powers, in accordance with the law". This right is exercised in various ways, such as, among other things, notification through the media, access to information based on the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance ("Official Gazette of the RS", No. 120/04, 54/07, 104/09, 36/10, 105/21), by publishing data in machine- readable format, but also through websites of state authorities. Adequate informing of citizens and other interested public through websites is one of the key mechanisms of proactive transparency, and it significantly contributes to exercising of the aforementioned right to information, but also reduces the so-called “reactive behaviour” of authorities, where information is provided at the stakeholders’ request. In this sense, Article 28 of the Law on eGovernment ("Official Gazette of the RS", No. 27/18) stipulates the commitment of authorities to create and maintain their websites, while the conditions for determining the domain, the accuracy and completeness of the contents of websites, the presentation of services that the authority provides, technical solution, functionality, accessibility, language and script, graphic solution, design, usability, availability, security, maintenance, updating and other issues related to the development of websites are regulated by the Regulation on Detailed Conditions for the Creation and Maintenance of the Authorities’ Websites ( "Official Gazette of the RS", No. 104/18). However, practice, as well as analyses conducted by the civil society, show that the authorities act inconsistently when it comes to providing information through websites. In other words, there is no uniform practice when it comes to publishing information on websites - the volume and type of information that is available varies, both when dealing with the same types of authorities, as well as when dealing with websites that have the same structure (layout). Due to all of the aforementioned, it occurs in practice that the websites of the authorities do not contain the same types of information, whereby some proactive institutions publish work plans, work reports, integrity plans, reports on the implementation of integrity plans, annual reports on public procurement, information on the salaries of civil servants and public officials and other information of importance for informing the public about their work, while others fail to do so, or do so to a lesser extent, by publishing the minimum amount of information referred to by the commitment to prepare their Work Information Booklet. Additionally, even when available, such information is not found in the same or similar sections of websites of different authorities, which further complicates its availability and access. The indicated problem has also been acknowledged in the Public Administration Reform Strategy in the Republic of Serbia for 2021-2030 ("Official Gazette of the RS", No. 42/21 and 9/22), which, within the scope of Objective 6, envisages the following: "Improvement of the proactive publication of data held by public administration bodies;". Moreover, the annual reports of the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection show that the number of complaints to this institution have been increasing significantly with each year, as a result of insufficient proactive transparency of public authorities.

2. What are the causes of the problem? The main cause of the problem is reflected in the lack of clear standards and obligations regarding the type of information that should be proactively published. On the one hand, the Regulation on detailed conditions for the creation and maintenance of the authorities’ websites does not regulate the contents of websites in more detail, in terms of information that should be available on the website, whereas Article 5 only establishes that the contents should be 1) updated, accurate and complete; 2) archived; 3) open for the purpose of availability of information published by authorities; 4) consisting of clear logical units, which should include data and information, created during the body’s work; and 5) in a machine-readable form. On the other hand, the obligation to publish various types of information and documents is prescribed by numerous (sectoral) regulations, which further complicates adequate implementation and makes this area unsystematically regulated. One of the consequences of the described situation is the constant increase in the number of requests for free access to information of public importance, given that the stakeholders sometimes simply cannot find the desired information, even when such information has been published, and use the mechanism of submitting requests for free access to information of public importance.

Commitment Description

1. What has been done so far to solve the problem? In order to improve the proactive transparency of public authorities, the obligation to enter work-related information into the Unified Information System of Information Booklets, which is available on the Commissioner's website (link: https://informator.poverenik.rs/pristup) and created in accordance with the provisions of the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance. The said Information System, which has been in use since 2022, enables every stakeholder to be informed in one place about the work of all entities subjected to the law. In addition, the Open Data Portal has been operational since 2017 (link: https://data.gov.rs/sr/) as a central place where various subjects, including state authorities, publish data generated in their work in a machine-readable format. The number of institutions that publish data in this way, as well as the number of data sets and resources, is constantly growing year by year. Also, as described earlier, the legal framework sets technical standards and certain content elements of websites. Finally, the Office for Information Technologies and eGovernment (ITE) has been trying to unify the structure and appearance of the authorities’ websites in recent years, which is visible on the example of newly established institutions whose websites are largely standardized in this domain.

2. What solution are you proposing? As the proactive publication of information is not precisely regulated in the domestic legislation, while the provisions on the publication of information on websites are scattered throughout several laws and by-laws, it is necessary to systematize in one place all the obligations of the authorities regarding the publication of information of public importance on the websites. In this way, the standardization of information that the authorities proactively publish would be carried out, especially in absence of explicit legal provisions, but also with the aim of reducing reactive behaviour as regards requests for access to information of public importance. In this sense, it is necessary, by analysing the current regulations, to first perform the mapping of all types of information which the authorities are required to publish on websites, in accordance with the provisions of various regulations, but also to consider comparative practice and other relevant international standards regarding the types of information that are available on websites of state authorities in other countries. The mapped state would be the basis for amendments to the Regulation on Detailed Conditions for the Creation and Maintenance of the Authorities’ Websites, which would prescribe the mandatory content of websites and define the way of monitoring the compliance of websites with the aforementioned amendments.

3. What results do we want to achieve by implementing this commitment? The amendments to the Regulation on Detailed Conditions for the Creation and Maintenance of the Authorities’ Websites will be an important step towards standardization of the content of websites of administrative bodies, bearing in mind the effort to define all mandatory content for publication in one place. At the same time, it strives for uniformity of the authorities’ websites not only in terms of content, but also in terms of appearance, i.e. structure. As the final outcome, the implementation of this commitment shall raise the level of overall transparency of the authorities, as well as facilitate access to all relevant information for citizens and other interested public, which is the ultimate goal.

Commitment Analysis

1. How will the commitment promote transparency? By mapping, systematizing, defining and standardizing in one place, i.e. under a single regulation, the necessary foundation for standardizing practice regarding the contents of the authorities’ websites is laid. In this way, on the one hand, the expectation is to increase the transparency in terms of volume and type of information about the work of the authorities, while, on the other hand, the availability of such information to citizens and all other stakeholders is facilitated. At the same time, not only does the commitment represent a measure for strengthening proactive transparency, but it also takes steps towards reducing and preventing reactive transparency, which is reflected in the significant number of requests for access to information of public importance which the institutions receive.

2. How will the commitment help foster accountability? By standardizing the contents of websites of administrative bodies, i.e. by prescribing the publication of the same types of information by all administrative bodies in one place, a higher quality of monitoring by both the public and competent bodies over their work is enabled. The increase in the accountability of administrative bodies in terms of fulfilling legal obligations related to the publication of certain contents on websites, as well as an increase in general accountability for one's own work, are also linked to this.

3. How will the commitment improve citizen participation in defining, implementing, and monitoring solutions? The commitment will also indirectly affect the conditions for citizens' participation in decision-making, given that adequate, complete and timely information from the institutions is a necessary precondition for citizen participation.

Commitment Planning (Milestones | Expected Outputs | Expected Completion Date)

1. Mapping of contents (all types of information) that authorities are required to publish on websites, in accordance with current regulations, and consideration of comparative practice and other relevant international standards in this area | Prepared overview of all types of information that authorities are required to publish on websites, in accordance with current regulations, and of other information, in accordance with comparative standards and practice | III quarter of 2024

2. Formation and work of the Working Group for the preparation of the Draft Regulation on Detailed Conditions for the Creation and Maintenance of the Authorities’ Websites, in the direction of prescribing the mandatory contents of websites | Decision on the formation of the Working Group Prepared Draft Regulation on Detailed Conditions for the Creation and Maintenance of the Authorities’ Websites | III quarter of 2025

3. Adoption of amendments to the Regulation on Detailed Conditions for the Creation and Maintenance of the Authorities’ Websites, in the direction of prescribing the mandatory contents of websites | Amendments to the Regulation on Detailed Conditions for the Creation and Maintenance of the Authorities’ Websites are adopted and published in the Official Gazette | IV quarter of 2025