TI BiH launched an initiative for amendments to the Law on free access to information in Federation of BiH and Republic of Srpska

April 29, 2011 – Transparency International Bosniaand Herzegovina (TI BiH) launched an initiative for amendments to the Law on free access to information towardsNational Assembly of Republic of Srpska and Parliamentary Assembly of Federation of BiH, with aim to improvethe enforcement of laws on entity levels and their harmonization with Law on a state level.

Law on free access to information represents one of the basic anti-corruption laws and therefore must be harmonized at all levels and be as efficient as possible in order to achieve its goal – enabling involvement and informing the public on activities of government and public institutions.

Proposal for amendments to the laws in both entities is primarily focused at introducing the sanctions for violation of the Law and therefore harmonization of entity laws with the state law, with penalties from 1,000 to 15,000 KM for institutions, and from 250 to 5,000 KM for persons who fail to act in accordance with Law. Practice so far and TI BiH experience have shown that appliance of these laws is extremely dissatisfying, especially since there are no penalties for violations of the law. Also, TI BiH research on Law on free access to information enforcement showed that institutions at state level are acting in accordance with the Law more than entity institutions.

On the other hand, TI BiH proposed amendments to the Law in Republic of Srpska which would be focused on enabling appeal mechanisms and judiciary protection of the citizens attempting to achieve access to information. By doing so, Law on access to information in Republic of Srpska would be harmonized with the Law on administrative procedure, requiring the institutions to reply to submitted requests in the form of decision, instead of letter, as stated in e current Law. Reply in the form of decision would enable appeal to received decision.

TI BiH is welcoming the fact that National Assembly of Republic of Srpska forwarded the initiative to legislative committee for a review, while Parliamentary Assembly of Federation of BiH still needs to reply. TI BiH is expecting the lawmakers to acknowledge the need for harmonization of mentioned laws, and also that initiation of sanctions in entity laws will finally improve their enforcement and enable citizens to have free access to information that are of public interest.