In 2020, active transparency of all 98 ranked institutions (line ministries, the government and municipalities) is calculated at 58.2% (from maximum possible 100%) and according to the categorization of compliance rates falls within the category of “average”. In 2020, active transparency has increased by insignificant 2.2 percentile points compared to last year when it was 56%.
In the case of ministries, after three years of continuous improvement, their active transparency is marked by stagnation and even minor decrease. This year, the overall score is 77.1% compared to the last year’s score of 77.6%.
However, active transparency of ministries is still significantly better compared to municipalities, whose score is calculated at 54.5% and, after several years of decrease, is marked by increase for a second consecutive year.
For the first time in the last five years since this index is developed, the top rank is held by a ministry. This year, the first-ranked position is held by the Ministry of Defence with the highest active transparency score (97.9%), followed by eight municipalities, the highest ranked of which is Veles (94.4%).
There are no changes in last year’s ranking of regions. The first rank is occupied by the East Region (68.3%), while the Skopje Region remains at the bottom (44.4%).
As observed in previous reports, both ministries and municipalities publish the least information on finances, whereby ministries publish 42% and municipalities publish only 36% of information that should be made publicly available.
Freedom of information requests addressed to all institutions on the same day and with the same contents were responded by municipalities within an average period of 24 days (last year it was 21 days), while ministries responded within an average period of 26 days (last year it was 34 days), although the maximum law-stipulated deadline is 20 days. In that, 40% of institutions complied with the law-stipulated deadline, while 60% of them acted in violation of the law.
The research can be downloaded Macedonian and English language
For more information, please contact the Center for Civil Communications at (02) 3213-513 or at center@ccc.org.mk.
This report is made possible by the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) within the USAID Civil Society Project.