Access to public information still limited

The Institutional Openness Index (IOI) in the first quarter of the year stood at 3.89 points, which means the public institutions have been relatively open to cooperation with the civil society, however five NGOs representing the Anticorruption Alliance showed in their quarterly monitoring report that inquiry response times are still great, especially when the inquirer is a media institution or representative, Info-Prim Neo reports. The Anticorruption Alliance has found that the public institutions are usually late to respond to queries concerning quarterly data and cases regarding personnel sanctions. The websites of public institutions are rarely updated and lack information about public procurements, either already made or intended to be made. Violations of criminal procedure are widespread, while the freedom of police and prosecution investigators is limited, which often makes people seek justice at the European Court, says Mircea Esanu, the secretary of the Alliance. Another deficiency that concerns all the monitored institutions is the fact that posts are assigned by appointment and not on a competition basis. At the same time, government agencies rarely present the elaborated draft laws for public debate , while the established helplines are either ineffective or do not work at all. IOI is the result of the effort made by the nongovernmental organizations to monitor the activities of the Government that are included in Moldova's Preliminary Plan under Millennium Challenge Corp's Program. IOI is calculated on the basis of five criteria marked on a 1 to 5 scale.