Training and workshops related to proactive transparency in public administration completed

Transparency International BiH (TI BiH) held today a workshop (Sarajevo, 11th March, 2016) regarding a manner in which a two-year action plan for proactive transparency in public administration should be made and thus completed a training program within “Support Initiative for the Open Government: Proactive Transparency in Public Institutions”, financed by the Government of the United Kingdom.

The overall objective of the project is to ensure the joint action of the government and civil society in BiH in building the open government through the promotion of proactive transparency in the work of public institutions and strengthening of their capacities. TI BiH used this training program, which lasted for 6 weeks and included 6 training and workshop modules, to strengthen the capacities of public administration institutions. Training sessions dealt with fields of proactive transparency, open data, communication channels and social networks as tools for promotion and creation of more responsible government. The project participants were representatives of: the Ministry of Justice of BiH, Agency for the Prevention of Corruption and Coordination of the Fight against Corruption BiH, Communications Regulatory Agency BiH, Central Election Commission BiH, State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) and the Audit Office of the Institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

A significant contribution to the realization of this program was given by the representatives of the German GIZ and institutions beneficiaries of the Program for strengthening public institutions in BiH which made significant progress in the field of proactive transparency despite numerous challenges. Institutions: Public Administration Reform Coordinator’s Office, Agency for Statistics BiH, Directorate for European Integration and Agency for Development of Higher Education and Quality Assurance BiH actively work on improving the transparency of its work, and last year they created Policy and Standards of proactive transparency in public administration in BiH in cooperation with representatives of civil society organizations (TI BiH, Center for Investigative Reporting – CIN and Center for Social Research Analitika). The established Policy and Standards, as well as experience of these institutions beneficiaries were basis for training and promotion of standards of proactive transparency. Training sessions and workshops resulted in determined capacities referring to mechanisms and communication forms with interested parties in order to open the government, and thus to increase the accountability and transparency in the work of public institutions. Besides the analysis of the developed Standards for proactive transparency among the institutions beneficiaries of the program, they also determined proposals of activities for the action plans towards proactive transparency of institutions participating in the project.