Public consultation on Open Government Partnership in Ferizaj Municipality

Ferizaj, March 11, 2014 – FOL Movement in cooperation with Initiative for Progress – INPO, as a member of the Coordination Group for Kosovo’s membership in international organization for the Open Government Partnership, organized a public consultation today in Frizaj Municipality in order to draft the National Action Plan 2014-2016. This event was attended by representatives of local institutions, civil society, media and interested citizens.

According to organizers, this public consultation campaign will help to increase the inclusion of all interested parties in this process and also proposal of concrete activities, which will be included in the National Action Plan of the Republic of Kosovo.
Samir Reka, Executive Director of INPO, after a brief introduction of the history of the establishment of Open Government Partnership – OGP (for more information please see OGP background: http://www.ogpkosova.org/what-does -open-government-mean /), said that they have supported this initiative. He said that “through this debate today, we are trying to identify the problems faced by the citizens of Ferizaj and Kosovo as well regarding the access to public institutions. Samir Reka from INPO also emphasized that apart from identification we will try to identify and propose actions and mechanisms that may change the situation and improve the function of the institutions and improve public services.

Fidan Kalaja from FOL Movement, briefly presented the steps that have been taken and have to be taken from Kosovo in order to become a member of the in the Open Government Partnership. He mentioned that the Coordination Group is established which consists of representatives of civil society, institutions and private sector representatives, whose mission is drafting the Kosovo National Action Plan. He said the Coordinating Group has decided that the plan focuses on four main challenges anticipated and suggested by OGP, that is: Improving public services, Increasing public integrity, more efficient public resources management and Increasing corporate accountability.
Faruk Guri , a municipal assembly member said the main weakness regarding the function of public institutions was the lack of inter-institutional transparency and accountability and to public as well. He mentioned various instances of such cases and proposed that in case of major capital projects there should be transparency regarding the realization of those projects.

Albion Sherifi from NGO “NA” in Ferizaj said that regarding specific actions that are to be included in the National Action Plan should be: improving access to public documents, the advancement of plans for local transparency, online database through which municipal expenditure will be published weekly and regarding citizens engagement in decision-making, local institutions should organize a campaign identifying citizens needs by drafting specific documents regarding these needs.
Samir Reka from INPO during the debate stressed the need that all vacancies, applicants lists for certain positions, their selection process be open and transparent to the public including the education system, health and civil staff in public institutions.

Visar Demiri, a municipal assembly member emphasized the need for professional advancement of municipal administrations in order to use the technology providing various services such as basic online documents application form.
Bashkim Fazliu, a municipal assembly member stressed the importance of innovation, considering it as a priority that should be in the National Action Plan.

The Director of Infrastructure Department in Ferizaj Municipaliti, Mr. Gafur Ilazi stressed the need for compiling the list, which clearly specifies which documents can be accessible to the public and all other documents that are considered as classified documents in order to avoid confusion and efficiency of institutions in response to different requests.