Access to public information has improved in Georgia

Levan Avalishvili, Chairman of Institute for Development of Freedom of Information. (IDFI.)

TBILISI, DFWatch–Access to public information has improved in Georgia after the October 1, 2012 parliamentary election, according to a new survey.

Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) named the most accountable and most closed public institutions after studying the rate of access to public information.

In the period from July 2012 to June 2013, 5 625 applications for public information were sent to 224 public institutions. IDFI received 788 complete replies, 389 incomplete replies, and 42 refusals. 576 applications were left unanswered and in 788 of cases the answer was that there was no available information.

“According to our data, release of public information has been improved after the parliamentary elections on October 1, 2012. The 51% share of complete answers that existed before the elections has increased to 81% and the unanswered requests reduced from 30% to 11%,” said Levan Avalishvili, co-founder and a chairman of IDFI.

Georgian National Energy and Water Supply Regulatory Commission (GNERC) were named as the Least Transparent Public Institution 2012-2013.

Special awards for Securing Access to Public Information in 2012-2013 were handed over to several ministries and other institutions: The Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources Protection, Ministry of Infrastructure and Regional Development, The Ministry of Defense (for improving access from 0 point to 84 percent), Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia, Kvareli Municipal Government (gamgeoba), Sukhumi State University, among others.