FOL Movement welcomes the decision for Kosovo’s membership in Open Government Partnership (OGP)

Shpërndaje në:

Prishtina, July 9, 2013 – FOL Movement welcomes today’s decision of the Government of Kosovo to begin the procedures for membership in Open Government Partnership (OGP). FOL from 2012 and forth has asked country’s institutions to take appropriate steps for Kosovo’s membership in this organization which is very important for building an open and accountable government to citizens and other institutions. Within its efforts to coordinate actions and institutional steps towards this membership, FOL during this period has been in constant communication with representatives of OGP, and the institutions of the Republic of Kosovo, including Presidency and Government. Therefore, today’s decision is a proper and concrete step towards Kosovo’s membership in OGP.

At the same time, the membership of the Republic of Kosovo in Open Government Partnership is not as a goal in itself, but first of all and above all, means taking major responsibilities within, but also internationally regarding the raise of the level of transparency and accountability of public institutions.

Responsibilities of each member are as follows:
• Fiscal Transparency – publication in time of essential budget documents and an open budget system;
• Access to information – Law on access to information which guarantees the public’s right for information and access to government records;
• Publication of the data on the public or elected officials – Publication of data on income and wealth of public or elected officials;
• Civic engagement – Participation and engagement of citizens in policy-making and decision-making processes.
The progress in these four areas will be measured by objective indicators and the results will be verified by international experts. Depending on the results of the measurement, the countries will be assessed whether or not suitable for membership. To be assessed as suitable for membership, countries that claim to join, should receive 75% of the maximum points.

The next step is the draft of a “National Action Plan”. In this plan should be described the commitments for concrete actions for an open government. Commitments are structured around some key challenges faced by governments, and these challenges are: Improving public services, Growth of public integrity, more effective management of public resources, Creation of safer communities and the Growth of corporate accountability. Moreover, the commitments should reflect the four main principles of an open government: transparency, citizen participation, accountability, Technology and Innovation. Governments should start drafting this plan by presenting their insofar actions and ongoing strategies and programs related to key challenges set by them. Commitments can be built on the grounds of actions taken so far, to identify new steps for the continuation of reforms or initiate action in entirely new areas.

Being at a high level of corruption, lack of transparency and extremely low accountability, made citizens distrust public institutions. Being at this level of government, the decision taken today by the Government is a great obligation for internal function of our institutions, in relation to open government, accountability and international responsibility that comes as a consequence of this situation.
Open Government Partnership (OGP) is a multilateral initiative involving governments, civil society and business sector, which aims to ensure commitments for concrete action by governments to promote transparency, empower active citizenship, fight against corruption, and use the new technology to strengthen good governance.

This initiative officially began operations on 20 September 2011, within the UN General Assembly in New York; it is now fully operational and has made its impact on the opening of governments, specifically enhancing transparency and accountability. In this occasion the eight founding countries (Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Norway, Philippines, South Africa, United Kingdom and United States) have approved the declaration of OGP and declared their National Action Plans.

Besides founding state governments, until 17 April 2012 another 39 other state governments have approved the declaration of OGP and have developed their ‘National Action Plan’, and until 24 April 2013 another 10 other state governments have formally approved OGP’s statement and have developed their National Action Plan.

Region states that have approved the declaration of OGP and have developed and submitted to the supervisory committee their National Action Plan are: Albania, Montenegro, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Serbia and Turkey.