2011, annual report
SUMMARY
CPFE monitored the websites of state authorities throughout 2011, in order to assess their level of information transparency. The monitoring took place in two stages. The first stage was from February 1 to April 30. The second stage took place from July 1 to October 15.
Members of the monitoring group based their findings on constitutional provisions that guarantee citizens’ right to receive official information from state agencies, in their private or public interest, as well as on the RA Law on Freedom of Information, which regulates the relations in this area.
State authorities possess information that constitutes public property; therefore, this information is to be made public, including by means of publishing it on official websites. These websites should serve as sources of complete information about the government’s activities. The following monitoring results indicate how successful are various government agencies in this regard.
The websites of 38 state and local government bodies were monitored in accordance with a common methodology (see the relevant section of this report). These websites were divided into three groups. The first group included the websites of 23 ministries and central government bodies. The second group included the official websites of the ten marzes (provinces), connected through a Territorial Administration System network (henceforth referred to as local administration websites). The third group included the websites of the RA President, the RA National Assembly, the RA Government, the RA Constitutional Court and the RA Prosecutor General’s Office.
All the websites were evaluated in accordance with qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the published information, such as:
– the existence of the required information or the lack thereof;
– completeness of information;
– timeliness;
– accessibility (from the technical point of view).
The websites were evaluated by 177 positions (parameters), of which 150 referred to the content, and 27 were technical. Then, the collected data was used in the specially developed formulas to calculate coefficients of quantity and quality of information. Then, the total weighted coefficient was calculated, which served as a basis for the final coefficient of information transparency. The websites of state agencies were then rated in the descending order of the coefficient.
The websites in two different groups (central government agencies/ministries and local administration bodies) were rated separately.
