Mykhailo Tepliuk, Deputy Head of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Secretariate, Head of the Central Judicial Department of the Secretariate, and Dmytro Markov, Deputy Head of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Secretariate, held a Briefing concerning Implementation of the Law

Mykhailo Tepliuk, Deputy Head of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Secretariate, Head of the Central Judicial Department of the Secretariate, and Dmytro Markov, Deputy Head of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Secretariate, held a Briefing concerning Implementation of the Law "On Access to the Public Information" in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Secretariate

Published on 11 May 2011, at 17:27

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At first, Dmytro Markov, Deputy Head of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Secretariate, informed that the Decree "On Implementation of the Law "On Access to the Public Information" in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Secretariate" was signed by the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.

D. Markov stated that enactment of the Law "On Access to the Public Information" was the topic of numerous publications, some of which were rather critical. He attributes this fact, as well as public speeches and manifests of the journalists, to the poor awareness of work of The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, its Secretariate, and committees. He believes that this Decree will give more publicity to The Verkhovna Rada and its activity.

Mykhailo Tepliuk, Deputy Head of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Secretariate, Head of the Central Judicial Department of the Secretariate, stressed that the Decree specifies the types of public information possessed by The Verkhovna Rada and its Secretariate. According to item 1 of the Decree, the Verkhovna Rada Secretariate is the administrator of the information which was received or created in the process of implementation of legal obligations by The Verkhovna Rada or its bodies, and which belongs to the Verkhovna Rada Secretariat.

M. Tepliuk also informed that the Verkhovna Rada Secretariat administrates the public information created or received by the Verkhovna Rada Secretariat during its activity. The Decree also specifies the information which is not administered by the Verkhovna Rada Secretariat. It includes information which is directly connected with activity of the People´s Deputies or the officials of the Verkhovna Rada, other public authority bodies, foreign states or international organizations, as well as the information obtained by means of generalization and analytical data processing.

M. Tepliuk stressed that although the Law came into force on May 9, the Verkhovna Rada Secretariat and its committees had already received plenty information requests referring to this Law. Response to some of these requests requires thorough analysis.

Under Clause 16 of the Law, the Secretariat should authorize a structural unit to process the information requests. Under the Decree of the Chairman of The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Information Department of the Verkhovna Rada Secretariat is the structural unit of the information administrator in charge of information requests. This unit also maintains the Single Information Request Database of The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. The Information Department will also be responsible for supporting the chapter "Information Requests" on the website of the Verkhovna Rada.

M. Tepliuk informed that under the Decree, the Computer Systems Office of the Verkhovna Rada Secretariat was appointed administrator of the Single Information Request Database that develops and supports software of the Single Database, provides technical and software support, and protects the data.

The Deputy Head of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Secretariate stated that some of the general provisions of the bill had to be adjusted to the conditions of the Verkhovna Rada Secretariat. The Decree includes respective provisions which specify work flow in the Secretariat. Under item 4, "work flow in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Secretariate is performed with account for certain peculiarities." Thus, on receipt of an information request, the Information Department will determine the structural unit responsible for the respective request.

Every structural unit of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Secretariate expressed its motions concerning the draft decree, which will be summarized into a single chart on the information possessed by every structural unit. On the basis of this chart, the Information Department will determine the structural unit responsible for the respective request.

However, the information request may concern the subjects of competence and the information of several different structural units of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Secretariate. In this case, the Information Department should address the Head of the Secretariate who will determine the structural unit responsible for the respective request.

M. Tepliuk drew attention to clause 2 of the Law, whereby the Law is not applicable to the social relations resulting from public requests. He reminded of the Law "On Public Request" that is applicable alongside the Law "On Access to the Public Information." This fact leads to several organizational issues due to the simultaneous implementation of the laws, as the citizens can send a common request, having meant the information request, and vice versa. He drew attention to the substantial difference between the two types, and the period of requests´ processing (5 days for information requests; 30 days for public requests).

The Decree contains the provisions to tackle these issues.

Moreover, the Decree commissions the structural units of the Secretariate to provide material-technical and financial support to the implementation of the Law.