TRANSPARENCY OF THE PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS

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TRANSPARENCY OF THE PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS

• Josip Kregar
• Conference on Public Procurement Review
  Remedies SystemsDubrovnik 24-25 May 07

AND THE LEGAL PROTECTION IN PROCUREMENT
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This is a corrupt state
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The present government has no real interest to
fight corruption
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BEEPS World Bank
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(No Transcript)
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Worldwide Governance Indicators Country Snapshot
Croatia http//info.worldbank.org/governance/kkz20
05/country_report.asp?countryid99
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NATIONS IN TRANSIT 2006
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Progress Report 2006Croatia 2006 Progress Report
Brussels, 08.11.2006SEC (2006) 1385

• However, corruption remains a serious problem.
  Many allegations of corruption remain
  uninvestigated and corrupt practices usually go
  unpunished. Implementation of the Anti-corruption
  programme is at an early stage. Full
  implementation of the programme and strong
  political will to step up efforts are needed,
  especially on high level corruption. There
  continues to be a need for greater efforts to
  proactively prevent, detect and effectively
  prosecute corruption. Awareness of corruption as
  a serious criminal offence needs to be raised and
  codes of conduct and action plans to prevent
  corruption developed in the relevant law
  enforcement agencies.. Progress on tackling
  corruption will also be an important indicator of
  Croatia's readiness for eventual membership.

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Moving Away from Scandal-Driven Procurement
ReformBy Michael Asner Tallahassee, FL,
September 14 15, 2006

• Scandals are an incentive to reform public
  procurement.
• Lets face it, implementing dramatic improvements
  in public procurement in many jurisdictions is
  like trying to peel an onion without crying an
  effort in frustration. Not just money but social
  costs and they can be significant
• For example the costs of all those special
  commissions alone would fund the salaries of
  several staff to monitor policy and process
  issues around procurement to ensure that due
  diligence is being applied.
• The diversion of our politicians from issues
  truly requiring innovative policy.
• The erosion of pubic confidence in our political
  institutions.
• The erosion of ethical behavior within the public
  sector and the migration of professional
  procurement staff to entities where they are
  valued
• And finally, the costs of law suits against the
  public entity, criminal proceedings against those
  alleged to have committed criminal acts, and the
  cost of incarcerating convicted officials and
  possibly the costs of building more jails.

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Good governance or/and scandals?

• Political scandals expect very much from
  democratic general public. Media is the one that
  plays a key role upon detection of a scandal.
  However, what happens very often is that these
  scandals are, due to the high publicity or
  international publicity, presented out of every
  possible proportions (boundaries). Morality is
  not the only questionable issue that appears at
  discovered scandals of politicians.

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European Principles of Public Administration

• LEGALITY reliabilityforeseeability legal
  competence, discretionary powers,
  proportionality, procedural fairness, expedience,
  professional integrity
• OPENNESS all but national security is public,
  protection of public interest, explanation
  (reasoning)
• ACCOUNTABILITY formal procedure, several
  instances of supervision, judicial protection
• EFFICIENCY economyefficiencyeffectiveness
• PROFESSIONALISM professional civil service

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Open Government

• The best cure against bacteria is the light
• The concept of good governance open government
• clear rule
• transparency
• legality

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Openness Transparency

• All is public, but national security
• Protection of public interest
• Statement of reasons (reasoning)

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Principle of Open Government

• Governmental institutions are obliged to secure
  public character of their work. Therefore,
  government has to inform the public on its
  activities DULY and EXTENSIVELY

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Right to Access to Information

• Everybody has the right to access the
  information in the possession of public
  authorities!
• Obligation of bodies of the executive power to
  make information on their work accessible they
  are obliged to give correct and complete
  information.

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How to Achieve Good Governance

• Building legal and institutional preconditions
• FOI, Access to Information
• Building practice and resources
• Integrating new technologies

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Right as a Human Right

• Balance of rights in collision
• Developed legal standards
• Restrictive interpretation of limitations
• prescribed by law
• necessary in a democratic society
• legitimacy (state security, public order,
  economic welfare of state, prevention of crime,
  protection of health or morals, protection of
  rights of others)
• proportionality

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Past

• Secret administration and secret procedure
• Judiciary
• Administration
• The principle of legality and publicity

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Principles of Right to Information I

• Conditio sine qua non of the democratic process
• Presumption of publicity of all but the issues
  proclaimed secret interrelated with
  transparency of work of state and public
  authorities
• Information - exact, broad enough and duly
  provided
• Regulation of procedure and legality of provision
  and usage of information
• Legal protection of exercise of right to
  information
• Equality in exercise of right to information
  general constitutional principle applicable to
  all rights Additional prohibition of
  discrimination of journalists and media

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Principles of Right to Information II

• Restrictiveness of exceptions of right to
  information
• Precise definition of exceptions
• Protection of right to privacy and exceptional
  circumstances (national security, public morals
  ...)
• Prohibition of restriction of right to
  information (by force, misuse of position)

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Who?

• The public bodies are institutions of
  legislative, executive and judicial authorities,
  and other institutions which have public
  authority or are financed by state, regional and
  local budgets have obligation of publishing and
  assuring access to information

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Why?

• Important right
• Government is a public good
• Interest of citizens
• ? and interest of government, not only an issue
  of media