Description
The openness of local government in Poland is still insufficient. The project is addressed to city and district councils. There are two objectives of the project: first, diagnosis of the level of openness of town and district council proceedings, and second, promotion of standards of openness in local government activities. To achieve these objectives, activities will be taken in two stages: 1) Research on the level of transparency in towns and districts; analysis of Public Information Bulletins (BIP) web pages; requests for information; analysis of the statutes of town/district councils in the context of the transparency of their proceeding; 2) Publication of the research results throughout the country; interactive map of the openness of local councils in Poland; title of the leader of local government openness.
Summary of project results
The principle of openness of proceedings of local government decision-making bodies - municipal councils and county councils - is set in the Polish Constitution, and described in more detail in basic acts on local government, in the act on the access to public information, as well as in the rulings of administrative courts. In practice, the legal norms concerning the openness of the proceedings of the councils are not always respected, e.g. the meetings of the councils are unnecessarily closed or relevant information are not published in PIBs. On the other hand, organisational independence of local governments lets them introduce locally solutions that are not required by law, but can enhance the openness of the proceedings of the councils, such as live reports from meetings, e-council service or contacting inhabitants through social media and more common use of personal voting procedure. The aim of the project was to spread among all local governments the best practices concerning the openness of the activities of the councils. As a result of the project, the portal jawnoscsamorzadu.pl published data on how legal regulations were ocally implemented in practice and on local solutions supporting openness of activities of the councils from all 619 city and county councils. The analysis covered councils in 619 local government units: counties and town municipalities. It was analysed to what extent PIB pages, statutes or rules of proceedings of the councils met the legal requirements, and what additional solutions were used in local government units. The results of the analysis were presented in the report and in the form of rankings of openness of local governments on the page jawnoscsamorzadu.pl. The report was forwarded to all local governments and academic libraries, became a subject of information campaign in media addressed to representatives of local governments, and its conclusions were presented during three conferences concerning the openness of local government. Beneficiaries of the project were representatives of 619 town and county local governments
Summary of bilateral results