Font size:  A  A  A 
PL|EN
Sitemap Contact      
Logo Citizens for democracy Logo EEA Grants Logo Stefan Batory Foundation Logo PFDiM
← back to the search

Transparency of proceedings of town and district councils in Poland

Public scrutiny Completed
podlaskie
Białystok
2014-02-03 - 2015-04-30
208 813,78 PLN
187 803,78 PLN
local government, accessing public data
Project description
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.
We use the grant for capacity building