<p><span style="font-size: small;">- This year, 54% of analysed institutions have improved their performance in respect to active transparency, unlike last year when the share of institutions with improved active transparency track record accounted for 81%.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;">- Active transparency among ministries and the government stands at 86%, while the municipalities’ average score is 74%. Contrary to observations made under the last year’s index, in 2023, ministries demonstrate an improvement by barely 1 percentile point, while active transparency improvement among municipalities is calculated at 4 percentile points.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;">- As was the case last year, only two institutions, i.e. the Ministry of Defence and the Government, have earned a perfect score of 100%, which means they publish all information required under active transparency obligations.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;">- Two municipalities, i.e. Veles and Gevgelija, share the third position in the overall ranking list, with a high compliance score of 99% with obligations for publication of information according to the principle of active transparency.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;">- Among planning regions, the East Region climbed to the top position (with a compliance score of 83%), while the Skopje Region still remains at the bottom of the ranking list (with a compliance score of 66%).</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;">- Both, ministries and municipalities, publish the least information in the area of finances (only 57% from maximum 100% among municipalities and 62% from maximum 100% among ministries).</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;">- The overall situation in respect to freedom of information requests addressed to all institutions and containing identical inquires is deteriorating. In particular, the average response rate accounts for 16 days (last year it was 12 days) among municipalities and 19 days (last year it was 16 days) among ministries. Only 65% of institutions disclosed the information requested within the law-stipulated maximum deadline of 20 days (last year this share was 93%).</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;">Active transparency is also presented on the special website <a href="https://www.aktivnatransparentnost.mk/">https://www.aktivnatransparentnost.mk/</a> with an overview of the achievements of each institution from 2016 onwards.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;">This research is conducted as part of the project “Public Procurement Monitoring”, implemented by the Center for Civil Communications and financially supported by the Foundation Open Society – Macedonia.</span></p>