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“You have Right to Request Public Information!”

October 11, 2010
Shorena Kakabadze, Kutaisi

Last week, the world celebrated international day of freedom of information. Though lightly, it was celebrated in Georgia as well. Georgian Young Lawyers Association Kutaisi branch met this date with a report. GYLA is almost the only organization in Kutaisi often addressed by citizens for assistance with requesting the information from different departments.

“People address us with the request of obtaining information from different administrative organs. But, these occasions don’t occur very often nowadays. More interest was shown last years. The indicator of the percentage of court hearings is the evidence. A lot more hearings were held regarding public information in 2000-2002 than in the recent years. This indicates that public interest has been reduced, that, in sum, is very bad,” – the director of programs of Young Lawyers’ Association Kutaisi Branch Nodar Jikia states.

Human Rights Center inquiry showed that interest of people regarding obtaining public information has really been reduced. Majority of interviewees never showed interest in the budget of the employer organization. The reasons are different. Some don’t see the need of this, some think that it doesn’t have any meaning as they will still not be able to obtain information.

Manana Chapidze is an official in one of the hospitals of Kutaisi. On the question of Human Rights Center whether or not she is interested in the budget of organization, she said no. The reason was explained in the following way: “I think that even asking this question doesn’t have any meaning. I declare this with full responsibility. We can’t even request the salary that we receive weeks, sometimes months later. Who will let us access the budget of hospital? Ok, I will ask and see the result.”

According to current legislation, any person must immediately receive public information. But, often administrative organs can’t understand this. GYLA states that often help of non-governmental organization is needed for obtaining public information.

“Often administrative organs refuse to give information. They won’t even accept the application of requesting public information. Maybe, this is the reason why the interest of citizens has reduced. They think that they still won’t be able to obtain information. We often need to intervene. And after our intervention, everything is solved. There was occasion when our intern addressed Kutaisi City Hall for public information, but was refused. After coming there second time, she indicated what organization she represented. Of course, then they took the application and said she should have told what organization she represented before. I don’t think I need to comment more, this fact tells us everything,” – lawyer Tamar Pachulia from Young Lawyers Association Kutaisi branch states.

At the end of September of the current year, GYLA addressed Kutaisi Mayor City Hall with several questions and the information was requested on how many citizens addressed City Hall from September 2009 till 2010 for obtaining the public information, how many citizens were satisfied, how many were redirected to another public department for obtaining the requested information, also whether or not information was given violating the relevant terms.

In the answer, signed by the head of Kutaisi mayor office Tengiz Topuidze, GYLA received the information that 215 requests were received, including 52 citizens. All of them were answered on time and in the city hall.

The representatives of Republican Party Kutaisi organization, in the October of last year, article 40th was printed out from the General Administrative Code and put up on the walls of Kutaisi City Hall. With this action they protested the mystifying of public information by local officials. As Republicans state, this was not the only occasion when they didn’t receive an answer on the information requested from Kuatisi mayor and other officials.

“Republicans” requested information from the city hall on the money that was spent on the renovation works of the City Hall (as well as the appendage on the salaries of government officials). They had a doubt that solid money was spent on this from local budget.

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