Information control must be public

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- The President approved the Operational Procedure for the State Control Information System. What is a State Control Information System?

-Actually, the name of this system does not evoke pleasant associations. Control is a good thing. Usually, control makes work more efficient. The expression “state control” unwittingly brings us back to Soviet times. The most effective, proven control system is the mass media. The criteria of the Council of Europe, of which our Azerbaijan is a part, include denationalization of the media. In this case, the choice of expressions is important. It is possible that the intent is for transparency, public accountability, but the expressions chosen are also important. Preference should be given to phrases that create comfort over anxiety. As for the system, the talk is not about the activities of the government as a whole, but about control over the execution of documents signed by the president, instructions of the first vice president and the head of the presidential administration.

There is a clear division. Tasks of the mentioned subjects and their implementation. At the same time, there are many questions here - how, for example, any citizen or I will be able to track the implementation of the President's instructions in essence. The document does not give answers to these questions, or the answer is very vague. If the citizen cannot see the content of this process, the visible publicity of the document does not matter.

-It is clear from the rules of work that this system is designed to control the work of specific government agencies and the Presidential Administration. Is there a need for such a system of work?

- Apparently, there was a need, otherwise the special document would not have been adopted. Public interest in such documents,  and the provisions stipulated in these documents  is very detailed. If everything ends with instructions from the country's leadership, with the presentation of reports to the one who gave instructions on the status of the execution of these instructions, then public interests will be ignored. The whole procedure we mentioned should be transparent to the public. In this case, the system will acquire social significance.

- The principles of the information system include efficiency and ease of use. It turns out that such a system is being created in order to make the work of government agencies transparent, efficient and effective. Do you think this system can be effective?

-Of course, here we can talk about the contribution to transparency. It is necessary to ensure transparency in the matter of fulfilling the instructions of the above-mentioned subjects - the president, the first vice president and the head of the presidential administration. Tasks and information about their implementation should be included in the resource, and society should be able to control them. In principle, such information is currently technically available. That is, a task is given, money are allocated, the task is carried out and the society is informed about it. The information should be more detailed and satisfactory. Society, individuals need to see and be sure that costs are controlled, tasks are being completed.

- Will ordinary citizens have the opportunity to track this work process?

- As we have already said, this system should be accessible to everyone, although there are no direct indications of this in the document, if this does not exist; there is no need to talk about the benefits of this system in the name of transparency. People need to be aware of the information that will be posted on the system. Because the information mentioned in the document is to a large extent public. Most likely, it will be an open source.

-What should be done to timely and effectively inform state bodies about the effectiveness of their work, control over their activities?

-There is no need to create any magical instrument or special system for this. The current legislation, despite its shortcomings, regulates these issues. We have a law “On Freedom of Information”, which was adopted 15 years ago, in 2005. This draft law was prepared by civil society structures and after a positive assessment of the experts of the Council of Europe was adopted by the Milli Majlis. Over the past 10 years, so many changes have been made to this law that half of its text has been removed from the law. However, according to the law, all owners of information - all officials, including the president, are considered owners of information, they must prepare a register of documents that they have. The register of documents is an electronic collection of information coming to the owner of information, which records information available to everyone, created or obtained as a result of performing public duties. More than 15 years have passed since the adoption of the law. But it is still not being followed. Such a register has not yet been created.

Instructions given by the President, as well as other officials and high-ranking officials, and information on their implementation are public information and must be disclosed to the public.

If the provision of the law we mentioned worked, there would be no need to create a new unified system at present. For more effective activities, timely informing about this, legal mechanisms should be launched, which we note, but we do not do it. For more effective action and timely notification, it is necessary to create legal mechanisms, mentioned or not mentioned by us.