The Information and Data Protection Commissioner’s Office and the Minister of State for Public Administration and Anti-Corruption (MAPA) co-organized the VI National Conference on the Right to Information, with the main theme being “Building Trust: Promoting Transparency, Accountability, and Integrity in Anti-Corruption Policies“.
The focus of this national activity was on the essential role of civil society and the media in promoting the right to access public information and enhancing transparency, for the creation of responsible and integrity-driven institutions, as well as the sharing of best practices in strengthening accountability, as pillars of the preventive approach to anti-corruption policies. The VI National Conference brought together, in a discussion forum format, high-level officials and representatives, as well as coordinators from over 150 central public authorities, independent bodies, the justice system, and local self-government, along with experts and activists from civil society and the media.
In his speech, Commissioner Mr. Besnik Dervishi emphasized, among other things, that “we should not deny what has been done well, even by public authorities, as today we have more information in circulation than at any other time. We believe that the path to achieving the highest standards of transparency is still long and difficult. Transparency, as a strategic objective in itself, but also in its role as the front line in the fight against corruption, clearly defines the challenge for each of our institutions. It is time to commit to a new challenge, the transparency of public authorities, which strengthens accountability, and to involve citizens and as many actors from civil society, the media, and the academic world, in their irreplaceable role, in building a transparent climate that rejects corruption”.
A special guest at this Conference was the Prime Minister of the Republic of Albania, Mr. Edi Rama, who emphasized the importance of ranking the legislation on the right to information in 7th place globally. He said, “what is striking is that even today there is a dominant mindset in the administration that providing information is an unnecessary exposure, while what we are talking about here is providing information about decision-making, about actions translated into decisions that are there. It is as dramatic as it is ridiculous when the retrieval of information, i.e., obtaining documents that are actually written, signed, and documented, is presented as a discovery: ‘I found a document.’ In fact, that document does not belong to anyone within the institution, it is not the property of the current government, but is public property and, as public property, it should be accessible“.
In her speech, Ms. Adea Pirdeni, Minister of State for Public Administration and Anti-Corruption, emphasized that “this year marks the decade of the adoption of the law on the right to information and the beginning of a process of understanding, accepting, and implementing a new, more effective, and faster approach to transparency. Over the years, there has been a gradual increase in public authorities obligated to implement the Transparency Program, from 145 institutions in 2015 to 332 in 2023. Additionally, since 2018, the central registry of requests and responses has been implemented, which today is functional in 222 public authorities, thus laying the foundation for a comprehensive extension of the information provision system”.
During this activity, the approach to the consolidation of stable and democratic institutions was underlined, through guaranteeing the right to access to information, increasing transparency and increasing accountability, as the key to citizens’ participation in good governance. A valuable contribution was given by Mr. Drago Kos, expert of the Global Project of GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit) “Fight against illegal financial flows” with his presentation on the topic “Transparency keeps corruption away“.
At the VI National Conference, through practical examples, the state of transparency of Albanian public authorities, existing problems, and proposals for increasing it to the required levels were discussed. In the two special panels on the topic “The implementation of the law on the right to information seen from the perspective of public authorities, the future of proactive transparency” and “Transparency of public authorities seen from the perspective of civil society and the media” the participants emphasized the growth of trust and cooperation between all parties/actors of this dynamic process, for the achievement of the common objective, that of guaranteeing with the highest standards the exercise of this fundamental right and freedom by citizens.
