STRATEGIC APPROACH TO GOVERNMENT TRANSPARENCY - WHAT DATA AND PROCEDURES DEFINE TRANSPARENCY

Abstract

Transparency as a principle has specific importance for achieving open government, which means that the public has access to - comprehensive, relevant and timely information about the activities of the executive branch; openness means that the government listens to citizens and the business world and takes their opinions into account when formulating and implementing public policies.

Governments can work better when they are transparent about their activities, procedures and data, when they encourage public participation and when they meet the demands of citizens. This, in turn, assumes that the government is willing to be held accountable for both successes and failures. Hence, the government is transparent when it proactively discloses information and data that help citizens make decisions about their own lives, to undertake business ventures, but also to understand how public authorities make decisions and how they spend public funds.

The transparent state provides information and data in such a way that the requester can easily (including through digital tools) find, access, understand, use and reuse it, and establishes clear procedures for accessing information that are not proactively detected.
This research aims to give a more precise answer regarding what defines the transparency index, what access to information should be established and what published data defines governments as transparent on a global level, where does the Republic of North Macedonia stand in relation to these issues and what needs to be improved to have a transparent government.