Transparency

Access to information is an important mechanism to address transparency and accountability. Recent studies show that the average level of transparency with regard to access to information by local governments in Albania is 57% and approximately half of the 61 municipalities have adopted a transparency programme.

The Constitution and legislation of Armenia provide a wide range of mechanisms for access to information. These mechanisms are widely used by media and civil society organisations as well as active citizens. Though the legislation sets forth the possibility for proactive access to information as well as reactive – based on inquiries, the former format does not get implemented properly.

The report of the Committee to Protect Freedom of Expression shows that in 2018 there have been 98 cases of violations of the right to receive and disseminate information in Armenia, and in 2019 the number of cases grew to 108.

According to research conducted as of July 2019 by Transparency International Slovakia with engagement of TIAC on access to Information in European capital cities, Yerevan holds the last place among 26 European capitals. The study was based on 14 indicators, including access to information, decision-making process of municipalities, management of financial resources, transparency of procurement, availability of information on the content and process of Community Council meetings and format, as well as rules of ethics for elected representatives. The survey was conducted based on a study of the data of the official websites of the municipalities, as well as inquiries sent to the municipalities.

As an integral component of the right to freedom of expression, the right to access to information is a human right guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights and other international conventions and declarations. Although the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina does not explicitly guarantee it, the right to free access to information indirectly derives from Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights,  which is an integral part of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and is directly applicable, and therefore has supremacy over all other regulations in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Bosnia and Herzegovina was the first country in the Western Balkans to adopt regulations on free access to information in the 2000s. This was primarily the result of the international community's efforts to develop a democratic society and a functioning public administration in Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, since the 2000s, there have been no major developments in the context of the development of the legal and institutional framework for free access to information, which is why existing regulations have weaknesses and shortcomings in implementation. The regulations in force are not harmonised with international standards, which was confirmed by the institution of the Human Rights Ombudsman of Bosnia and Herzegovina  and the European Commission. Another problem is the inconsistency of laws and the lack of adequate institutional mechanisms for monitoring and enforcing laws in force in BiH. 

Access to public information increases transparency and accountably, it lifts citizen’s participation in the decision-making processes and affects the building of trust between institutions and citizens. In Kosovo*, access to information is a constitutional right guaranteed by the Constitution of Kosovo*, which establishes that every person is entitled to the right to access public information and that documents held by public institutions and authorities are public. To implement this constitutional right, Kosovo* has in force the Law on Access to Public Documents, which regulates this right in detail. This law came into force in 2019 and includes changes in comparison with the old law, such as the introduction of the principles of proactivity and disclosure of data and the establishment of the Agency for Information and Privacy. The law provides two ways of accessing public documents: through proactivity, where institutions are forced to proactively publish data, and through direct request. However, this right is not always respected in practice. Citizens, civil society and media encounter difficulties in securing public information, data and documents. The problem lays in the lack of publication of public documents and in the refusal to allow access to these documents when they submit such a request. Balkan Investigative Reporting Network has published a report on access to public information in the Western Balkans with the aim to promote transparency and accountability of public institutions to their citizens. During the reporting period, January 2017 to June 2019, BIRN submitted 854 official requests for access to public documents to public institutions. Out of this number of requests sent, 337 of them were sent to different institutions in Kosovo* like the municipalities, the Ministry, Telecom of Kosovo, the Prosecutorial Council, the Judicial Council, the Office of the President, the Office of the Prime Minister and the Public Procurement Review Body. Of these requests, 188 were approved, 27 received partial responses while 122 were rejected.

According to the Freedom in the World Global Report for 2021, the Republic of Moldova scores 61/100 with 26/40 political rights and 35/60 score in civil liberties, which places the Republic of Moldova in a ‘partly free’ status country.

Also, according to the widely-respected Public Opinion Barometer (POB), a medium level of access to information prevails as of June 2021: 66.4 % of respondents said that people have access to information to a very large extent or to a large extent, while 30.8% said that people have little or no access to information.

The right to information is guaranteed by the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova in Article 34. The Law on Access to Information has been granting access to public data since 2000. However, there are numerous challenges still associated with requesting access to public information, including obstruction by government officials, refusals or delays in replying to requests for access to information, and purposefully incomplete or vague responses to requests for information.

On the major challenges in the implementation of the Republic of Moldova’s right to information system is the absence of an institution responsible for monitoring the implementation of the guarantees of access to information and aggregating statistical data on the number of public information requests submitted, accepted, or refused by state administration bodies. In the case of a refusal to share information, the applicant usually does not know what to do and is not informed of the grounds for refusal and the right to appeal.

A Freedom House report from 2020 states that “all principles of transparency and access to public information have been neglected while promoting major draft decisions, with a strong impact on corruption prevention and on society as a whole. In certain cases, under the cloak of ’personal data protection’, access to information of public interest was systematically restricted (depersonalisation of court decisions)”.

The Republic of Moldova’s regulatory framework has great potential to address corruption, ensuring transparency, accountability, and open government overall. However, much needs to be done until the relevant law is implemented in practice. Efforts are being put in place by the Parliament to improve access to information: “Now, public authorities understand better than ever how important it is to guarantee access to information, particularly because being opened to society means having the advantages of credibility, efficiency and responsibility”.

Between 2019 and 2020 the Republic of Moldova implemented its 4th National Action Plan on Open Government, based on the principles of access to information, open data, and transparency. By 2020, 45% of the actions included in the Action Plan have been implemented, 49% were in process of implementation and 6% were not implemented. However, IRM Transitional Results Report states that overall, the commitment to “Access to information and use of open data” did not significantly change the Republic of Moldova’s open data and access to information practices compared to the previous action plan cycle.

Advanced legislation on access to information allowed journalists and activists to reveal multiple corruption cases. Nevertheless, there are still challenges in the enforcement of the right to access information, most of them relating to public servants’ lack of knowledge of legal requirements and how to put them into practice. It was reported in 2017 that responses to the requests for access to public information may be of poor quality, incomplete or provided with delay, and such problems still remain relevant. In 2020, the report on the provision of public information concerning COVID-19 showed that 34% of the answers to the relevant requests were provided late, and 30% of the answers were provided not in the form requested by the applicant. Finally, there is no system to address the problem of public authorities systematically underperforming or failing to properly disclose information.

To overcome these challenges, leading NGOs in Ukraine initiated the Fund of the Right for Information Protection, and over 150 lawyers joined the Network of Defenders of the Right to Access Information which was founded back in 2012. The Network provides free expert legal assistance with the aim to guarantee legal protection of the right of access to information, as well as supports the implementation and ratification of the Tromsø Convention in Ukraine. The Tromsø Convention was ratified by Ukraine in May 2020. It is the first international document of binding nature that recognises a general right of access to official documents held by public authorities.

Article 15 of the Law No. 139/2015 “On Local Self-Government” and Law No. 119/2014 “On the Right to Information” (FOIA) stipulate that local self-government bodies are obligated to make all their acts and information accessible to citizens. They should be published on their official website and displayed places for public announcements within the municipality. Each municipality shall adopt a transparency programme and appoint a co-ordinator for the right to information ensuring access for all to information.

Further, Article 18 of the Law No. 119/2014 “On the Right to Information” establishes administrative offenses for those who fail to comply with the provisions of this Law and imposes pecuniary sanctions according to the degree of violation. The Commissioner for the Right to Information and Protection of Personal Data has the right to supervise and monitor the implementation of the Law, to conduct administrative investigations and to propose disciplinary measures against offenders.

Furthermore, Law No. 44/2015 “On the Code of Administrative Procedures” regulates the procedure for access to public administration, right for administrative requests, petitions, etc., that may be addressed to public administration authorities. The principle of one-stop-shop provided in this Code is a good legal basis regarding access to information.

The Constitution of Armenia gives citizens the right to freedom of information. Article 42 of the Constitution states: "Everyone shall have the right to freely express his or her opinion. This right shall include freedom to hold one’s own opinion, as well as to seek, receive and disseminate information and ideas through any media, without the interference of state or local self-government bodies and regardless of state frontiers”.

The Law on Freedom of Information defines the duties of the information holder as well as the procedure, form and conditions for obtaining information. The procedure for registration, classification and maintenance of information developed by or delivered to the state and local self-governing bodies, state institutions, and state-funded organisations, including information requests sent to state bodies in electronic form has been adopted by the Government in 2015. The information should be provided to the applicant within a 5-day period. If additional work is required to provide the information mentioned in the written request, it shall be provided to the applicant within 30 days after receiving the application. In this case the applicant shall be notified in writing form within 5 days after receiving the request from the applicant.

The Law on Mass Media gives basic rights to journalists who work for mass media organisations to operate without unwarranted restrictions. It reaffirms the constitutional right to seek, receive and disseminate information. The law prohibits censorship, the interference in “the legitimate professional activities of a journalist “, and the disclosure of sources without a court order for the purpose of disclosing information pertaining to serious crimes. Amendments to the Law On State Registration of Legal Entities, Separate Subdivisions of Legal Entities, Institutions and Private Entrepreneurs from 06 March 2020, provided the possibility for Mass Media to receive the information from the unified state register of companies without paying state fee.

Legislation also states some limitations to freedom of information. Thus, the information may not be provided, if it:

• contains state, official, banking, trade secret;
• violates the privacy of a person's personal and family life, including the confidentiality of correspondence, telephone conversations, postal, telegraphic and other messages;
• contains the data of the preliminary examination not subject to publication;
• discloses data requiring restriction of access due to professional activity (medical, notarial, lawyer secret);
• infringes copyright or related rights.

At the same time, the provision of information may not be denied if it refers to emergencies threatening the safety and health of citizens, as well as natural  disasters and their consequences, presents the general state of the economy of the Republic of Armenia, as well as the real situation in the field of nature protection, environment, healthcare, education, agriculture, trade, culture, as well as if the denial of provision of information will have a negative impact on the implementation of state programs of socio-economic, scientific-technical, psychological-cultural development of the Republic of Armenia. According to the report of the Committee to Protect Freedom of Expression, there were 98 cases of violations of the right to receive and disseminate information in 2018, and 108 cases in 2019.

The law also envisages the disclosure of information by the government: all state agencies, regional administrations and large communities have their own official websites, where they publish information about their activities and have feedback options. At the same time, state agencies and particularly municipalities do not publish sufficient information as defined by the law, which was especially visible in the situation of emergency in 2020. According to the research of the Freedom of Information Center of Armenia (FOICA), proactive disclosure rules were not properly followed by the government, specifically in the initial period of state of emergency. Further, the government launched a Facebook page and a web site to update the public on pandemic issues, but in some cases these resources were not synchronised.

The freedom of access to information in Bosnia and Herzegovina is regulated at the state and entity levels of government. The Law on Freedom of Access to Information of Bosnia and Herzegovina  was adopted in 2000, while the Law on Freedom of Access to Information of the Republika Srpska  and the Law on Freedom of Access to Information of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina  were adopted in 2001.

The applicable laws on freedom of access to information of the Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina apply to all public bodies in the Republika Srpska or the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, including all executive, legislative, judicial bodies, as well as bodies performing public office, or any other administrative body and legal entity owned by a public or administrative body. Thus, local governments in Bosnia and Herzegovina apply entity laws, depending on whether they are administratively located in the Republika Srpska or the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. All laws regulate the procedure for access to information and the obligation of public authorities to provide the necessary information at the request of a natural or legal person, except for exceptions that are clearly defined by law, such as "crime prevention and any detection of crime." In addition, the applicable laws stipulate the obligation of all public bodies to appoint information officers, but also to publish or submit a guide on access to information, an indexed register of information, statistical data, and annual reports. The latest published Report of the Human Rights Ombudsman of Bosnia and Herzegovina shows that most of the surveyed public bodies meet these obligations under the law.

Although the existing laws on freedom of access to information were amended and changed on several occasions, there was no significant harmonisation with international and European standards. Some of the key shortcomings of the three current freedom of information laws are:

-             Lack of provisions on proactive transparency in all laws in force

-             Lack of provisions on mandatory adoption of an administrative act (Decision) in case of denial of the right to access information in the Law on Freedom of Access to Information of the Republika Srpska, which prevents the right to appeal

-             Very limited and inefficient supervisory and grievance mechanisms

-             Lack of provisions on fines in the laws on freedom of access to information of the Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina

-             impossibility of electronic submission of requests for free access to information

In Kosovo*, the right to access to information is regulated with the Law on Access to Public Documents, which guarantees the right to access public documents to every person. This right covers all public documents that are produced, received, maintained or controlled by public institutions. Public documents are defined as “any act, fact or information, stored in electronic form or on sound, in print, in visual or audio-visual recordings produced or maintained by a public institution”. Access to public documents is done through proactive publication of public documents by public institutions, which should be done electronically on the official website of each public institution. That said, the law also regulates that publications can be done in printed form, through broadcast or in any other form which enables access to the largest possible number of the public. This law requires each public institution create an official e-mail address, especially for public communication, and to nominate one person to manage and control access to public documents.

Article 10 of this law stipulates that everyone has the right to access public documents upon request. The public institution, within 7 days, should issue a decision to grant access to the document requested. If it does not issue a decision, then its silence is considered a negative response. If they issue a decision refusing a request, this restraint of the right of access to the public document should be exercised in accordance with the principle of proportionality. Before refusing someone’s request, the public institution should do a “Damage and Public Interest Test” to determine if the damage caused to the protected interest outweighs the public interest in accessing that public document.

If the public institution refuses the request to access a public document, the applicant has the right to use legal remedies. This law regulates that the applicant can file a complaint within the Information and Privacy Agency. Procedures before the Agency and the way it manages complaints are regulated by Article 20 of the Law on Access to Public Documents. If the Agency issues a decision that refuses the request, the applicant can file a lawsuit at the Court. Finally, the applicant can file a complaint to the Ombudsperson.

The Law on Access to Information (adopted in 2000) only restricts public access to state secrets, confidential business information submitted to public institutions under conditions of confidentiality, and personal data, the disclosure of which may be considered interference in one’s private life.

Subjects of the present law are information providers and information seekers. Information providers that are holders of official information required under the present law to provide such information to applicants are:

1. local and central public authorities;
2. local and central public institutions – organisations founded by the state, represented by public authorities that are financed by the state budget, who are responsible for administrative activities, those in social-cultural domains or other non-commercial activities;
3. natural and legal persons who, based on the law or the contract with the public authority or public institution, are empowered to manage public services and collect, select, possess, store, dispose of official information.

In addition to the Law on Access to Information, here are some other important legislative acts:

• The Law on Personal Data Protection (2011)
• The Code of Audiovisual Media Services of the Republic of Moldova (2018) 
• The Law on National Security Agencies (1995) (excerpts)
• The Law on State Security (1995) (excerpts)
• The Law on Informatics (2001) (excerpts)
• The Law on Informatisation and State Information Resources (2004) (excerpts)
• The Criminal Code (2009) (excerpts)
• The Law on Integrity (2017)
• The Law on State Secrets (2008). 

Article 21 of the Law on Integrity stipulates that “Ensuring access to information of public interest should be made more efficient through fostering active participation of citizens in decision-making processes, through guaranteeing access to information of public interest regarding the activity of public institutions.”

The Ombudsperson in the Republic of Moldova has the authority to oversee the implementation of the law; however, this office lacks the capacity and resources to exercise control. Article 5 of the Law on Access to Information stipulates that the direct subjects of this law are both the central and the local public administration authorities.

Citizens’ access to public information is not fully ensured, because the law does not fully clarify the obligations of the public administration to proactively make it available, and the implementation of the law is not monitored.

The Law on Libraries was adopted on 20 July 2017, after over a year of deliberation and consultation. This new legislation enshrines public libraries’ role as providers of free and inclusive public access to information and locally relevant community services. Article 17 describes the roles and responsibilities of the local public administration authorities under this law.

The Constitution of Ukraine guarantees citizens’ right to access to information (Article 34, paragraphs 2 and 3). The Laws No. 2939 “On Access to Public Information”, No. 2657 “On Information”, and No. 183 “On State Secret” regulate access to information. In line with the Law “On Access to Public Information”, no information held by public authorities can be restricted unless the information is confidential, secret, or for internal use only. The access to information may be provided (1) via official publications, websites and information stands or (2) at the individual requests (Article 5 of the Law No. 2939).

In particular, according to the Law No. 2939 “On Access to Public Information”, national and local authorities are obliged to publish accurate, exact and complete information, as stated in Article 14. They are required to disclose different categories of information as listed in Article 15, including accessible information about the structure, mission, functions, budget of the organisation, laws that regulate their work, decision-making process, list of the mechanisms through which citizens can advocate their interests, reports about the sessions and the institutional work, action plans, etc.

Restriction of access to information must be based on the so-called “three-part test” (tryskladovyi test) of public information, as stipulated in Article 6, paragraph 2 of the Law No. 2939. The Law provides for the obligation to create structural units or appoint freedom of information officers by public authorities. The Law assigns some monitoring functions to the Secretariat of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights (Ombudsman’s Office). However, international organisations recommend setting up or designating an independent authority to supervise and enforce regulations on access to public information.

The violation of the right to request and obtain information from public authorities can be punished by a fine of up to 80 non-taxable minimum income (UAH 1,360), as stated in Article 212.3 of the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offences. The unlawful refusal to provide journalists with access to public information can be punished by a fine or up to 3 years imprisonment (Article 171 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). Those persons whose rights and legal interests to access public information were violated are entitled to receive compensation for material and moral damages (Article 24.2 of the Law No. 2939 “On Access to Public Information”).

To increase access to information at local level, especially for the poorest communities, local authorities shall adopt and keep updated the Transparency Programme, which shall be created in accordance with the standard format approved by the Commissioner for the Right to Information and Protection of Personal Data. By means of the Transparency Programme, local authorities should take into consideration the highest interest of the community, especially to ensure maximum access to public information and to make publicly available as much information as possible in order to reduce the need for individual requests for information.

In addition, local authorities shall create, keep and make public a register, which keeps track of the requests for information and includes the information made available in response. The register should be created in accordance with Article 8 of the Law No. 119/2014 “On the Right to Information” and as set forth in the Transparency Programme and following the standard format of the register issued by the Commissioner for the Right to Information and Protection of Personal Data.

In October 2014, the Digital Rights non-governmental organisation published policy guidelines on personal data protection. The guidelines provide practical information on national and international practices and policies in the protection of personal data, making references to national and international instruments. In addition, the publication includes a set of European models and practical recommendations for the Armenian context.

In 2017 The Personal Data Protection Agency of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia has developed guideline on the protection of children's personal data. The purpose of the guideline is to provide a unified interpretation of personal data protection legislation, to raise awareness of the rights and responsibilities of children, parents and data developers, and to raise the level of protection of children's personal data. The guideline outlines the principles of personal data protection for children, the rights of children in the field of personal data protection, the responsibilities of data developers, educational institutions, the Internet, the specifics of personal data processing, and the responsibility for violating children's right to personal data protection.

 All laws on freedom of access to information in Bosnia and Herzegovina prescribe the obligation to issue instructions on the application of the law on freedom of access to information. In 2001, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina issued the Instruction on the Implementation of the Law on Freedom of Access to Information, which regulates issues that should contribute to the effective implementation of the law. Considering that the state law is applied in the Brčko District, the Instruction on the application of the Law on Freedom of Access to Information of Bosnia and Herzegovina  was adopted in Brčko.

In 2013, within the project "Monitoring and Advocacy for Good Governance in Municipalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina", Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina developed a manual for local government representatives "How to Improve Transparency and Accountability of Local Governments".   The Manual has a section dedicated to the application of the law on freedom of access to information in local governments, with explanations and examples of guides for access to information, a model of the Decision on approval of a request for access to information, an example of an information access request form, a model of a Decision to reject a request for access to information, and an example of an information register index.

In the last Special Report on Freedom of Access to Information in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2020, the Ombudsman for Human Rights of Bosnia and Herzegovina made a number of recommendations to the competent institutions to improve the current situation in the field of the right to free access to information. Among other things, it is recommended to all competent institutions to develop guidelines for applying applicable laws that will be intended for holders of information and to establish closer cooperation with civil society and media that can inform the public about the right to freedom of information.

Currently, there is not a general and unified guideline on access to information. However, based on the Law on Access to Public Documents, the Ministry of Local Government has issued Administrative Guidance on the Transparency in Municipalities. This administrative guidance aims to increase the transparency in municipalities and of municipal bodies by informing and publishing their normative acts and documents that are in the interest of the citizens. It also aims to strengthen citizen participation in decision-making. Besides publishing public acts and documents, meetings of the Municipal Assembly and Committee are required to be open to the public and media and prior to the adoption of acts municipal assemblies must hold public consultations and meetings with the citizens.

A practical guide for access to information for public interest was developed by Lawyers for Human Rights and United Nation Democracy Fund in 2020. It provides step by step guidance in the process of submitting a request of information, taking into account relevant legislative innovations, such as the repeal of the Law on Petitions and the Law on Administrative Litigation and the entry into force of the Administrative Code.

A guide for journalists on legal access to government information was developed by Access Info Europe and the Network for Reporting on Eastern Europe. It provides a very detailed step by step guidance on access to information, data security, and how to submit a request for information among others.

Another guide for public servants and journalists was developed in 2015 by the Moldovan Independent Journalism Centre and Civil Rights Defenders. It provides a clear illustration of how the Law on Access to Information should be implemented, with specific tips for public servants and journalists.

Local authorities have an important role to play in the implementation of the “right to know” at local level. Hotlines, a user-friendly website for the community, a spokesperson, surveys, information campaigns, and information boards are just a few examples. Local authorities should consider the following advice when developing a website to support access to information: 

• Publish local council decisions on the local authority website;
• Digitalise local open data as much as possible, making it available on the website (following the open data principles);
• Ensure that any content published on the website is applicable or relevant to community members;
• Provide citizens with the opportunity to make a request or contact someone for more information;
• Keep information up to date;
• Provide links/references to information available elsewhere, on other governmental or non-governmental websites (e.g. links to national platforms on e-services, national legislation, opportunities for studies, etc.);
• Include a comments section for feedback and provide ”feedback on feedback”.

As regards the state of open government data, Albania is ranked 37th in the 2015 Global Open Data Index.  With regard to the legal framework, laws, published acts and updated legislation are available online through the Albanian Official Publishing Centre. Nevertheless, 59% of surveyed civil society organisations do not fully agree that draft laws, policies and laws are available to the public, and 54% of them do not fully agree that draft laws, policies and laws are published in a timely manner.

Lack of awareness and understanding of open data persists both in government institutions and public officials and among citizens.  That said, there are initiatives in place to address this situation, such as the promotion of Open Government Partnership (OGP) values among local authorities, which was one of the partially achieved commitments of the OGP Second Open Government National Action Plan for Albania 2014 -2016.

Currently in Armenia, the accumulated and released open data of many state institutions makes up quite a large volume. There are a number of databases which have considerable potential to help anti-corruption and civic journalistic investigations such as single-source procurement and asset and income declarations. Journalists and researchers can use open data to carry out independent investigations and research.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is in the early stages of implementing open data standards. Although government institutions at all levels "produce" large amounts of data, currently in Bosnia and Herzegovina there are no regulations on the obligation to publish such data in an open format. Open data has been on the government agenda more actively since Bosnia and Herzegovina joined the Open Government Partnership (OGP) in September 2014. In addition to certain strategic documents prescribing the importance of open data, limited efforts have been made to implement open data standards in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Open data in Kosovo* is generated in all public institutions which are allowing citizens to oversee the activities of the public bodies and institutions. However, publication of open data is more pronounced among central government institutions, in comparison to local government. Kosovo* is ranked 58 (out of 94) in the Global Open Data Index. Kosovo* is ranked 68th in the 2017 Open Data Inventory, which is an improvement in comparison to 2016’s measurement that ranked it as 82nd. To facilitate openness and transparency of the work of the public institutions in Kosovo*, in 2014 was founded Open Data Kosovo as a non-profit organisation that promotes transparency and accessibility for the citizens of Kosovo*. Open Data Kosovo leads in the opening of governmental data in Kosovo* since its founding. Most of the data published by the Kosovo* government as open data so far have occurred under the leadership and expertise of the Kosovo Chamber of Commerce, including procurement, air quality, water surface quality, election monitoring, asset declaration, and other types of data.

All the laws, international agreements, by-laws of the Government and ministries, decisions of the Constitutional Court and judicial institutions, decrees of the President, and acts of municipalities are published on the Official Gazette of the Republic of Kosovo (gzk.rks-gov.net) and are open for access to everyone.

The Republic of Moldova embarked on a national open data initiative in 2011 as part of its Governance e‑Transformation Agenda. The initiative has drawn support from the highest levels of government, with two prime-ministerial directives and new legal provisions solidifying the country’s commitment to opening up government data by default. Led by the e-Government Centre, the initiative has spurred the release of 782 datasets from 39 institutions across the government.

Today, there are more than 1,000 datasets on the portal and several apps based on this data. One critical factor contributing to the success of the initiative was the political support from the Prime Minister and the State Chancellery. Other crucial elements have been the solid legal framework and the development of the open data portal (date.gov.md).

The Republic of Moldova participated in two editions of the Open Data Barometer (2015/2016), having one of the highest rates among Eastern Partnership countries.

Since 2020, the Republic of Moldova is included in the annual Open Data Maturity assessment. This is a research project on the state of maturity of open data in EU Member States, EFTA countries, and Eastern European Partnership countries, including the Republic of Moldova. According to the 2020 Open Data Maturity Study, the Republic of Moldova scored 58% on the maturity level.

Ukraine has a well-developed open data ecosystem, and keeps improving it. At this stage, the EU Open Data Maturity Report 2020, prepared by the European Data Portal on an annual basis, places Ukraine in the category of fast-trackers. It includes assessment of four dimensions of open data: (1) ‘policy’ covering relevant national strategies and policies, (2) ‘impact’ measuring the impact of the re-use of open data in terms of political, social, environmental, and economic impact, (3) ‘portal’ assessing how the national open data web portal is tailored to the needs of its users, and (4) ‘quality’ focusing on such properties of open data as data formats, machine-readable, high-quality and suitable to a linked data approach. With these estimation criteria, Ukraine has a maturity score of 84%, whereas the average score in Europe is 78%.

On 9 April 2015, a major step was made towards open data in Ukraine with the adoption of the Law No. 319-VIII “On amendments to some laws of Ukraine on access to public information in the form of open data”, introducing significant changes in other relevant legal acts. These changes obliged public authorities and local governments to publish and update on a regular basis public information in the form allowing automated processing of such data by electronic means. What is even more important, the Law No. 319-VIII clearly stipulated that any person is free to copy, distribute and use such open data, including for commercial purposes, separately or in combination with other information, or by including in their own products.

Open data must be provided free of charge on the webpages of the authorities and on the single state open data website (data.gov.ua), which was updated in 2021. Alongside the update of the single state open data website, the Ministry of Digital Transformation also launched a chatbot in Telegram @DataGovUa_bot, where the function of notification about the update of selected data sets is available.

The provision of open data in Ukraine has enabled significant progress in the public control of the state and local budgets, public procurement and beneficial ownership disclosure. They also boosted many private initiatives and businesses in the field of data analytics and monitoring, such as Opendatabot, Vkursi and YouControl, further promoting business openness and convenient access to data.

In 2019, the Ministry of Digital Transformation was created instead of the State Agency for E-Governance. Now it is responsible for the implementation of the Open data policy, providing support to local public authorities and raising awareness among the citizens.

In May 2021, the Ministry of Digital Transformation launched the Centre of Competencies in the field of open data “Diia.Open data”. It is intended to raise awareness of different groups of society as to the access to open data, help people monitor the work of public officials and create new services with the use of open data.

On 18 February 2015, the Council of Ministers approved the decision No. 147 “On the Approval of the Document on the Open Data Policy and the Establishment of the Open Data Portal”. The OGP Third Open Government National Action Plan for Albania 2016 – 2018 foresees four major actions and 17 commitments to promote transparency and open data. Increasing the access to information and the modernisation of the public service are the two main actions that should be addressed by local authorities. A platform for transparency and innovation named OpenAlb has been established to ensure the successful implementation of the OGP commitments in the country.

There is no legislation that sets forth a requirement for posting open data, though the requirements in different sectors to publish specific data might imply open format publishing. This may refer to budgets, elections results, etc., naturally posted in excel based formats, but also to criminal case statistics, asset and income declarations, etc. that might be accessible in pdf or similar formats.

According to the Law on the Budgetary System, the budget formulation and approval process should be open. The Law states that after presenting the draft law on the state budget to the National Assembly, the Government should publish the budget within three days, with the exception of issues containing state secrets.

The Law requires local self-government bodies to publish draft community budgets in the local press within three days of submitting the draft to the community council. The Law on Local Self-Government requires all communities to have a website and to publish the budget and its reports on the website.

According to the Law on Prosecution Service the Prosecutor General's Office of the Republic of Armenia should annually publish a report on the investigation of crimes on the website of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Republic of Armenia. The report should contain information on the results of the investigation of crimes committed during the previous year, its statistics, comparative analysis and conclusions. As for the information on the results of the investigation of corruption crimes, its statistical data, comparative analysis and conclusions are presented separately.

No level of government in Bosnia and Herzegovina has adopted a regulation regarding the obligation to publish data according to an open standard. Some progress has been made at the state level, where several strategic documents have been adopted to recognize the importance of open data. In 2017, the Council of Ministers of BiH adopted the Policy for the Development of the Information Society of Bosnia and Herzegovina 2017 - 2021, within which the establishment of a database of public data for public use is envisaged.  Additionally, in 2018, the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted the Interoperability Framework of Bosnia and Herzegovina, within which the concept of open standards and open codes in public administration was promoted.  The Strategic Framework also confirms open data as an important area of public administration reforms in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the framework provides for the preparation of the Analysis of the Readiness of BiH institutions to open data and the adoption of Open Data Policy until 2022.

Legal regulation of open data is included in the Law on Access to Public Documents. Article 1.4 defines open data as “the data produced, received, maintained or controlled by public institutions, which can be freely used, modified and distributed by any person, provided that they remain open and attributable to the source”. Article 8 states that open data should be published based on the initiative of public institutions themselves without a request submitted by the interested parties. The law requires open data to be published in a central open data portal, which is developed and managed by the ministry responsible for public administration. Open data should be public in such a way that it allows all interested parties to use it freely. The law requires that open data should be published in open format, which allows interested parties to read and modify them without technological obstacles.

The Republic of Moldova succeeded in developing a solid legal and policy framework to pave the foundations for its open data initiative. Open data principles were embedded in the Governance e‑Transformation Agenda (Strategic Programme for Governance Technological Modernisation, e‑Transformation), approved in September 2011.

The passing of the Law on Public Sector Information (PSI), in line with European Union directives, aimed to boost the open data agenda in government. To enforce this law, the Ministry of Information Technology and Communications developed methodological norms for implementation.^[i] These set out the terms and conditions for accessing and reusing PSI and developed an open data license for the Republic of Moldova’s public data.

In addition, the Republic of Moldova approved a national open data policy which aims to achieve open data in government by default. The policy brings clarity to the data publishing process, provides for machine-readable formats to be used for the publication of data, and defines standards on data collection, archival, and publishing. Every ministry and government agency are to embed an open data action plan in their sectoral governance e-transformation action plan, which is to support and expand the implementation of open data initiative in government.

The provisions on open data constitute an integral part of the legislation on access to public information. In particular, Article 10-1 of the Law “On Access to Public Information” sets the regime for ‘public information in the form of open data’ meaning the data in the form allowing its automated processing by electronic means, free access to it, as well as its free further use. To bring these provisions to life, the Cabinet of Ministers issued the Decree No. 835 as of 21 October 2015, defining the sets of data to be published in the form of open data. These sets of data are available on the official websites of relevant state bodies and on the Unified State Web Portal of Open Data. Such provisions have substantially reduced the workload of the information administrators concerning requests for public information and made the work of specialists more efficient.

In March 2021, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine adopted the Decree No. 407 adding the financial statements of the companies to the list of public information in the form of open data. This step was highly anticipated in society. Although starting from 1 January 2018, the Law “On Accounting and Financial Reporting in Ukraine” clearly stated that the financial statements of enterprises do not constitute a trade secret/confidential information/or information with limited access, and should be provided at request, both the companies and tax authorities refused to provide them when requested. The Decree No. 407 eliminated this problem, and the financial statements are now publicly available on the single state open data website.

In order to increase openness and transparency at local level, local authorities in Albania should engage substantially in developing open data tools in accordance with the Technical Standards for Publication of Open Data, which will improve public access to information and lead to greater levels of citizen participation. Co-ordination between local authorities and civil society organisations, businesses, think tanks and other actors is important to raise awareness and understanding of open data as a transparency mechanism for strengthening local governance.

In October 2014, the Digital Rights NGO, with the support of The Open Society Foundations, published policy guidelines on personal data protection. The guidelines provide practical information on national and international practices and policies in the protection of personal data, making references to national and international instruments. In addition, the publication includes a set of European models and practical recommendations for the Armenian context.

In 2017 The Personal Data Protection Agency of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia has developed guideline on the protection of children's personal data. The purpose of the guideline is to provide a unified interpretation of personal data protection legislation, to raise awareness of the rights and responsibilities of children, parents and data developers, and to raise the level of protection of children's personal data. The guideline outlines the principles of personal data protection for children, the rights of children in the field of personal data protection, the responsibilities of data developers, educational institutions, the Internet, the specifics of personal data processing, and the responsibility for violating children's right to personal data protection.

Since Bosnia and Herzegovina's accession to the „Open Government Partnership“ Initiative, the role of civil society in promoting open data standards has intensified. In 2016, two open data management manuals were adopted. CPI Foundation, in cooperation with the Centre for Budget Monitoring from Amsterdam, prepared the Manual for Public Data Management,  and in the same year through the project "Proactive Transparency of Public Institutions" funded by the Government of the United Kingdom, Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina prepared an Open Data Readiness Assessment in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This analysis has shown that significant political, financial and institutional preconditions are needed to introduce open data.

New activities have been started through the Program for Strengthening Public Institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, funded by the German GIZ. In September 2020, the Open Data Readiness Assessment in Bosnia and Herzegovina  was published based on the recognised methodology of the World Bank. This is part of the activities envisaged by the Strategic Plan for Public Administration Reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The preparation of such an analysis is also planned for the Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This document provides an overview of key institutional shortcomings and the necessary steps for introducing open data into Bosnia and Herzegovina institutions.

Based on the Law on Access to Public Documents, the Government of Kosovo* has adopted the Regulation on the Government Public Communication Service. The purpose of this regulation is to set out the functioning of a coherent and co-ordinated system for government public communication. According to this regulation, the Public Communication Office within the Office of the Prime Minister and in each Ministry receives and conducts initial handling of requests for access to open data.

A methodology for publishing open government data has been approved through the Government Decision No. 701 of 25 August 2014. It sets clear guidelines for the publication of open data and is mandatory for all central public administration authorities. It sets clear requirements for the open data portal, the nature of the data to be released via the portal, who is to have access to publishing the data, and the rights and responsibilities of the persons involved in releasing the data. The methodology also specifies the format and frequency of the data publishing.

The guidelines were developed by the e‑Government Centre of the Republic of Moldova back in 2014, based on the G8 Open Data Charter principles.

Since March 2017, the Open Data Roadmap for Ukraine provides an extensive list of practical recommendations that public authorities can follow in order to comply with international standards on open data. All these recommendations are based on six major principles: data should be open by default; timely and comprehensive; accessible and usable; comparable and interoperable; for improved governance and citizen engagement; and for inclusive development and innovation.

The detailed recommendations on publication of the specific sets of open data were developed by the Ministry of Digital Transformation. In particular, they include recommendations for the publication of 14 different sets of open data managed by public authorities and 64 sets managed by local governments. The information administrators may also familiarise themselves with the methodological recommendations on depersonification of the sets of open data.

In addition to the available guidelines, the Ministry of Digital Transformation has training and educational programs on open data both for private professionals and information administrators.

Alongside the recommendations developed by governmental bodies, documents drafted by NGOs and private initiatives also provide helpful guidance on how to handle open data. In particular, the independent media texty.org.ua published a manual “Open data: formats and rules of creation”, whereas the team of the “Data of the cities” project introduced a handbook on “Open data for cities. Practical aspect ”.

Albania is doing moderately well in public procurement. Some progress was made in the past year, in particular by amending the law on concessions and public-private partnerships (PPPs) to remove the bonus for unsolicited proposal in line with the European Commission’s recommendations and the adoption of the new law on defence and security procurement. Further efforts are needed to improve compliance with procedures and prevent corruption in the procurement cycle.

In the framework of measures towards increased transparency and the fight against corruption, from 2009 all public procurement procedures in Albania are performed through an electronic platform. Application of the e-procurement system has been a big challenge and a great achievement at the same time, for Albanian public procurement system, comparing to the paper-based model.

Based on data analysis, and assessments done after several years of experience with the e-procurement platform, improvements have been done in 2016, further aiming to increase transparency in the procurement system.

Improving and using the e-procurement system, as a tool to increase transparency and fight corruption, helped a lot in improving the performance of the procurement system in Albania. The most important figures to illustrate the impact is the reduction of the number of unpublished tenders direct awards which decreased from 30% of the total number of procurement procedures (which represents the average during the period 2009-2017) to 2.5% in 2019.

Public procurement may be conducted both electronically and paper based. The procurement system is mainly regulated by the RA Law on Procurement adopted on 16 December 2016 (entered into effect on April 25, 2017), which also has a separate article defining which documents are required to ensure the record and storage of the information on the procurement procedure, validity of the data required from bidders and rules of e-procurement. Armenian legislation provides four methods of procurements: Electronic auction; Tender; Price quotation; Single-source procurement. Tender is the preferable procurement method, while other methods of procurement can be used only in cases stipulated by the Law.

Armenian electronic public procurement system ARMEPS (Armenian Electronic Procurement System) was established in 2012. It is aimed at minimizing the risks of conflicts of interests exercising better control over compliance with public procurement procedures, increasing effectiveness and efficiency of usage of e-procurement system, enhancing its transparency and strengthening competition in public procurement.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, about BAM 2.5 to 3 billion are spent annually on public procurement, representing about 7-8% of GDP.  In the EU, it is estimated that about 13% of public procurement funds "disappear" due to corruption.  Although there are no reference data for Bosnia and Herzegovina, these percentages are estimated to be higher. The public procurement system in Bosnia and Herzegovina was significantly improved in 2014 with the adoption of new regulations and the gradual introduction of electronic public procurement. Although this was a significant improvement over the previous legal and institutional framework, significant irregularities and corrupt practices are still observed in public procurement procedures in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was particularly evident in public procurement during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the public procurement system still shows shortcomings in legal and institutional terms. The need to harmonize the Law on Public Procurement with the EU Directives on public procurement from 2014 and strengthen the capacity of competent institutions is stated as one of the key priorities set by the European Commission for Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to gain the status of a candidate country for EU membership.

The State Procurement Agency of Georgia (SPA) is an independent legal entity of public law (LEPL) that provides oversight to ensure the legitimacy of government procurement procedures. The Chairperson of the Agency is appointed and dismissed by the Prime Minister of Georgia, while the Government of Georgia approves the structure of the Agency and provides state oversight over its activities.^[i] Public Procurement at the municipal level is conducted by relevant Mayors’ Offices using the unified electronic procurement system. The Mayors’ Offices are responsible to submit reports on the execution of annual procurement plans to the Municipal Councils.

^[i]Law of Georgia on Public Procurement, Article 4, Legislative Herald of Georgia, published on 18 May 2005.

Public procurement has been for a long time one of the most criticised sectors by civil society and the media in Kosovo* due to various corrupt affairs through public tenders. However, after the creation of the e-procurement system, Kosovo* has taken a step forward in increasing transparency and accountability. Yet, the lack of control over the quality of works or material goods, services and everything else that the public authorities procure through public tenders remains a concern. Kosovo* has been trying to amend the Law on Public Procurement through amendments that are aimed at advancing transparency and accountability of public officials, contracting authorities and the contractors.

At local level, procurement is conducted by municipal procurement offices while, at the central level, procurement is conducted by the Central Procurement Authority. The competencies of this Authority are to develop joint procurements for Contracting Authorities, to perform procurement activities on their behalf, and to assist in carrying out procurement activities. The Public Procurement Regulatory Commission (PPRC) is an independent institution established by law and with the mission to develop, operate and oversee the public procurement system in Kosovo*. Its mission also includes the operation and oversight of the electronic public procurement system in Kosovo* (E‑Procurement).

Another authority with an important role in the public procurement system is the Procurement Review Body. This body is established by decision of the Assembly of Kosovo* in line with the Law on Public Procurement. The competencies of this body are the review of public procurement activities that are carried out by the Contracting Authorities after a party has filed a complaint.

According to a report of the European Committee of Regions, some of the main problems in the Republic of Moldova regarding public procurement, as reported by experts, are: lack of transparency (77%), nepotism (65%), and untrained personnel (54%).

Other public services affected by corruption in the procurement process are the medical and educational centres that fall under the authority of local administrations (given the process of decentralisation). Studies show that the most widespread practice is to organise and arrange public procurements through dubious schemes related to the execution of the contracts. Most frauds in the public procurement sector contain an element of corruption and conflict of interest. A conflict of interest occurs when the representatives of the contracting authorities involved in the procurement process use their status and position to award contracts to companies in which they have financial or managerial interest. For example, cases were identified with contracts being awarded to companies whose founders were relatives of the decision-making representatives.

Created in 2016, the ProZorro e-procurement system has significantly enhanced transparency in public procurement and contributes to fighting corruption at all levels of governance. Owing to the high level of transparency of the ProZorro platform, all users are able to detect procurement procedures that may entail a violation of law, as provided for in Article 9 of the Law No. 922-VIII “On Public Procurement” which concerns civic oversight. However, improvements to the public procurement system are still needed. In particular, mechanisms for citizens requests for investigation and information on actual payments per procurement agreement, in order to further increase transparency indecision-making.

The current core legislation in the field of public procurement consists of Law no. 9643, “On Public Procurement”, as amended, and the Decision of Council of Ministers no. 914/2014 “On the approval of public procurement rules”, as amended. These legal instruments are based on Directive 2004/18/EC on the coordination of procurement procedures for the award of public works contracts, public supply contracts and public service contracts” (Public Sector Directive), Directive 2004/17/EC coordinating the procurement procedures entities operating in the water, energy, transport and postal services sector”(Utilities Directive), which are already repealed by the new Directives of 2014, as well as in the Directive 2007/66/EC of the Parliament and European Council of 11 December 2007 amending Directives 89/665/EC and 92/13/EC as regards the increase of efficiency for public contract review procedures.

Also, the legislation in the field of public procurement contains two decisions of the Council of Ministers, which further regulate centralised procurement at governmental level, namely DCM no. 81/2018 “On the establishment, organisation and functioning of the Centralized Purchasing Agency” and DCM no. 82/2018 “On entrusting  Centralized Purchasing Agency with conducting public procurement procedures, on behalf and in the name of the Prime Minister’s Office, Ministries and Subordinate Institutions, for some Goods and Services”.

In the field of public procurement, Albanian legislation includes the concessions and PPPs, which are ruled by Law 125/2013 “On concessions and public-private partnership”, as amended, based on Directive 2014/23/EU on the award of concession contracts. This law is also supported by three bylaws, namely: DCM no. 280/2020 “On the approval of the regulation on the functioning manner of the selection committee of concession/PPP projects and criteria for evaluating contracting authorities’ requests for support with specialized expertise”, DCM no. 285/2020 “On the organisation and functioning of the Concession Treatment Agency (ATRAKO)”.

Legal provisions related to the Procurement Ombudsman represent an additional guarantee to citizens and private entities.  

Also, in the Cross-cutting Strategy for Decentralization and Local Government 2015-2020, one specific objective is the expansion of the reform of Internal Audit and Control, External Audit and Public Procurement to include local government. This aims at raising the level of Local Government Units to a achieve effective monitoring of the progress of reforms in the field of public financial management.

Along with the Constitution of Armenia, the main legislative acts in the area of Legislation on public procurement in Armenia consists of the Law on Procurement (adopted on December 16, 2016), Civil Code of the Republic of Armenia and other legal acts. The Law of Armenia on Procurement determines the general legal, organisational and economic principles for conducting public procurement.

Armenian public procurement legislation also includes sub-legal acts, such as The Decision of the government of the Republic of Armenia of May 4, 2017 “On approval of the procurement organisation procedure and on repealing the Decision of the Government of the Republic Of Armenia of February 10, 2011” (major sub-legislative act on public procurement), Decision of the Government of the Republic of Armenia of April 6, 2017 N 386-N "On approval of the procedure for e-procurement and on repealing the decision N 1370-N of the Government of the Republic of Armenia of December 5, 2013", the Order of the Minister of Finance No. 219-A "On approval of the guideline for e-procurement and on repealing the order No. 7-A of the Minister of Finance of the Republic of Armenia of January 10, 2014", etc.

New regulations on public procurement in Bosnia and Herzegovina were adopted in 2014. The Law on Public Procurement of Bosnia and Herzegovina  and the accompanying bylaws were a significant step forward from the regulations in force since 2004. The law prescribed procedures and rules, defined the obligations of contracting authorities and bidders, legal protection and the role of competent institutions. The Public Procurement Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina has the task of ensuring the adequate application of the Law and accompanying bylaws, while the Office for Review of Complaints is an independent and autonomous institution that handles complaints procedures in the second instance.

From the local to the state level, all contracting authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina are obliged to conduct public procurement procedures through the central electronic public procurement portal https://ejn.gov.ba. According to the current level of functionality of the public procurement portal and in accordance with the law and accompanying regulations, information can be found on the portal: procurement notices, contract award notices, notices of cancellation of public procurement procedures, contract award notices through negotiated procedures without publication of notices, voluntary ex-ante transparency notices, reports on the public procurement procedure in small value procedures, decisions of the Office for Review of Appeals and decisions of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The tender documentation is available to the public only for completed procedures, while only registered bidders have access to the tender documents for the ongoing procedures. It is the tender documentation that contains technical specifications and qualifications that are crucial for effective monitoring. However, although a good part of the data from the procedures has been published on the portal, the data were not published in an open format and as such are not machine-readable or cross-searchable. The Law on Amendments to the Law on Public Procurement of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which would further improve the public procurement system in Bosnia and Herzegovina, is currently under consideration in the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Law on Public Procurement, which regulates this specific field, has been amended several times over a short period of time. It has been amended and supplemented by Law No. 04/L‑237, Law No. 05/L‑068 and Law No. 05/L‑092. Article 2 of the law clearly obliges all contracting authorities to carry out all procurement activities based on this law and the changes that have followed over the years. Chapter II of the law sets out the general principles on which Public Procurement should be carried out in Kosovo*, which are: economy and efficiency, equality in treatment and non-discrimination.

The Ministry of Finance has been working throughout the past years on designing and implementing public procurement policies that help ensure a functional, efficient and transparent legal framework for public procurement, including its harmonisation with EU Directives and international standards.

Public procurement in the Republic of Moldova is mainly governed by Law No.131 of 3 July 2015, which entered into force on 1 May 2016. The law is transposing the EU Directives 2004/18/CE, 89/665/CCE, and (partially) 2014/24/UE. The government has further approved a set of secondary legislation intended to facilitate the implementation of this law.

The Ministry of Finance has developed the 2016-2020 Strategy for the Development of the Public Procurement System and the Action Plan on its implementation, approved by the Government Decision No. 1332 of 14 December 2016, in order to implement the provisions of the EU-Moldova Association Agreement and the World Trade Organisation Government Procurement Agreement, which  the Republic of Moldova had joined on 14 July 2016.

Amendments to Law No. 131 of 3 July 2015 were adopted by Parliament in September 2016 and as a result, the National Complaints Agency was to be then established by Parliament; this only happened a year later, in September 2017. Establishing this entity aimed to eliminate the conflict of competencies from the activity of the Public Procurement Agency, a specialised body subordinated to the Ministry of Finance, which ensures the implementation of the public procurement policy. In 2020 the number of complaints filed by economic operators increased by 25% (by 256 more complaints) compared to 2019. Overall, since the establishment of the National Complaints Agency (September 2017) and until 31 December 2020, 3234 appeals have been registered and examined, according to the Agency's Annual Performance Report from 2020.

On 30 November 2016, a memorandum was signed between the Ministry of Finance, the Public Procurement Agency, the Electronic Governance Centre, several business associations, and CSOs and IT companies. It aimed to pilot the new multi-platform hybrid eProcurement system for micro value procurements.

Order No. 30 of 10 February 2017 of the Minister of Finance On Piloting the Public Procurement System for Low Value Contracts entered into force, according to which the Ministry of Finance and all subordinate administrative authorities shall apply the e-procurement system in pilot regime for low value public procurement.

On 27 July 2018, the Law No. 131 on Public Procurement was amended and electronic tendering procedures have been introduced as a standard for all public sector entities in the Republic of Moldova.

In 2015, the Ukrainian Parliament adopted the Law “On Public Procurement”. Since then, this law has facilitated the creation of an e-procurement system, bringing e-democracy and e-governance to a new level. Open procedures and competitive selection now take place exclusively on the electronic platform ProZorro, which has boosted transparency and has significantly improved Ukraine’s position in the international E-Government Development Index scale. Similarly, the DoZorro portal (dozorro.org) creates a database of real assessments of purchasers, suppliers and individual tenders that allows to monitor public procurement effectively.

Ukraine continued on its path to reform by becoming a fully-fledged member of the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Government Procurement in 2016 and by adopting the Resolution No. 175 of the Cabinet of Ministers “On the Public Procurement Reform Strategy and Action Plan (Roadmap)”,  which addresses the development of the public procurement system from 2016 to 2022 in compliance with the provisions of the “EU – Ukraine Association Agreement”.

In September 2019, the Parliament of Ukraine adopted a number of amendments to the Law “On Public Procurement” with the aim of complying the national legislation with the Directives 2014/24/EU and 2014/25/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on public procurement. On 19 April 2020, those amendments came into force. The amendments which have been introduced are generally deemed positive, as they aim to increase the level of control and transparency of the procurement procedure and eliminate a number of existing critical issues that were widely abused and taken advantage of. The law introduces a number of significant changes to public procurement procedures:

• Below-threshold procurements are now regulated by the introduction of simplified procurements, which contracting authorities are to make using the electronic procurement system ("Prozorro");
• As a general rule, if the value of a procurement item equals to or exceeds UAH 50,000 but is less than UAH 200,000 for goods/services or less than UAH 1,500,000 for works;
• For natural monopolies, if the value of a procurement item equals to or exceeds UAH 50,000 but is less than UAH 1,000,000 for goods/services or less than UAH 5,000,000 for works.

The new version of the law also introduced measures for identifying price dumping more easily, adopting non-price criteria for assessing proposals, enabling to organise more professional procurement due to the transition from “tender committees” to “authorised procurement officials”. Besides, the new version of the Law significantly expanded the list of violations for which officials will be held administratively liable, as well as increased the amount of fines for such violations.

Moreover, according to Article 62 of the Law “On Prevention of Corruption”, legal entities participating in public procurement procedures in which the expected value equals or exceeds UAH 20 million must have established and authorised anti-corruption programmes (that is: a set of rules, standards and procedures for detecting, combating and preventing corruption within a legal entity’s list of activities).

Public procurement efficiency is also enhanced by the Law ”On Electronic Documents and Electronic Document Management”, “On Electronic Trust Services”, “On Access to Public Information”, “On the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine” and a number of by-laws enforcing transparency and efficiency in the public procurement system in Ukraine.

To respond to the challenges caused by COVID-19 and the need to ensure the procurement of goods and services, the Ukrainian Parliament adopted the Law “On Amendments to Some Legislative Acts of Ukraine Aimed at Preventing the Occurrence and Spread of Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)” which amends the Law “On Public Procurement” to ease the procurement process for goods, works or services necessary to prevent the spread of the COVID-19.

Albania has a central electronic public procurement portal administered by Public Procurement Agency, where tender and contract notices, and other important information and guidance are published. Use of the portal is mandatory, including for low-value procurement. Standard tendering documents for each type of procedure and contract are published on the PPA website, and the procurement forecast register is prepared and posted online.

By the end of 2019, the concessions registry contained information on 224 PPPs, five of which had been signed in 2019. Although required by law, value-for-money analysis is still not systematically carried out before approval of all PPPs. The Ministry of Finance and Economy made initial attempts to establish regular monitoring and reporting on PPPs. The technical skills and capacity to design and assess concessions and PPPs require further development.

The PPA has recently strengthened its monitoring role, and applies a monitoring system to assess procurement performance, procurement compliance and, since 2019, contract implementation, with information available for 1,006 contracts. The monitoring system is based on a variety of performance indicators. There is still a need for: (i) further support for contracting authorities; (ii) a strengthening of the e-procurement system; (iii) monitoring of contract implementation; and (iv) analysis of market trends in public procurement.

In order to facilitate the process of online procurement in Armenia, the Ministry of Finance has developed several guides and manuals for E-Procurement, available at the Procurement Official Electronic Bulletin of the Ministry of Finance – https://gnumner.am/hy/. The developed guide on E-auction  for "Economic Operator", the guide on E-auction , the guidelines for e-Procurement of PIUs, Foundations and CJSCs Implementing World Bank-Funded Projects, as well as the Manual for E-Procurement Planning, Contract Management, Procurement Reporting Modules include step-by-step approach of the Unified Electronic System of State Procurement (armeps.am) directed at suppliers, procuring entities as well as any other interested party at the central and local levels.

In 2020 the Open Government Partnership (OGP) acknowledged the Transparent Public Procurement Rating (TPPR) as one of the main sources for monitoring good governance in public procurement. The TPPR methodology of evaluating the level of public procurement transparency includes indicators for evaluating the level of procurement transparency. According to the TPPR, the public procurement system in Armenia is evaluated with a score of 66.26%. Based on the evaluation, the central and local authorities can identify existing gaps and take relevant steps to tackle them.

In accordance with Article 92 of the Law, the Public Procurement Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina is, among other things, in charge of publishing manuals and instructions for more efficient application of the law, but also providing technical assistance and advisory opinions to contracting authorities and bidders regarding proper application of the law and bylaws.

On its website https://www.javnenabavke.gov.ba/bs-Latn-BA/practical-application, the Public Procurement Agency has created a module with a list of questions and answers regarding the practical application of the Law on Public Procurement and the e- procurement portal. In addition, the Agency issued a series of instructions prescribing models of tender documentation and bids, publication of basic elements of contracts and contract amendments, conditions and methods of publishing notices and submitting reports in public procurement procedures in the e-procurement portal, instructions on managing and establishing qualification systems, minutes on the opening of bids and instructions on how to keep the minutes on the opening of bids.  In order to efficiently implement the e-procurement portal, the Instruction on how to use the information system for e-procurement was adopted.  In addition, the Public Procurement Agency has open telephone lines and e-mail addresses through which technical and advisory assistance to contracting authorities and bidders is provided twice a week within the prescribed period.

A significant number of manuals, guides, and instructions on the application of laws and bylaws in the field of public procurement in Bosnia and Herzegovina have been developed by civil society organisations. In cooperation with the Public Procurement Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Centre for Security Studies has published a Guide to Public Procurement in Bosnia and Herzegovina to promote transparency and accountability in the public procurement process.  For the purpose of more efficient prevention and abuse and more efficient prosecution and sanctioning of criminal acts of corruption in public procurement, in 2019 the Network of Civil Society Organisations "Account" presented the Manual for Judges and Prosecutors: Corruption Risks in Public Procurement Procedures.

The Public Procurement Regulatory Commission through its website (e-prokurimi.rks-gov.net) assists contracting authorities and economic operators to operate in public procurement. Contracting authorities have a detailed manual, a video manual, and a contract management manual and performance evaluation which includes an explanatory video. Economic operators also have a manual, which explains in a detailed way the registration process, the preparation of bids, advanced search, etc.

In April 2017, a pilot of the MTender (mtender.gov.md) e-procurement system – a partnership between the Ministry of Finance and four commercial electronic platforms – was launched with support from European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

Since March 2018, economic operators registered in the Republic of Moldova are able to use MTender for signing online contracts, both public and commercial ones. Public bodies funded from the state budget may use MTender for signing any public contract and registering it with the Treasury of the Republic of Moldova.

On 27 July 2018, the Law on Public Procurement No. 131 was amended in order to introduce electronic tendering procedures as a standard for all public sector entities in the Republic of Moldova.

Starting from 15 October 2018, new types of electronic tendering procedures became available on MTender, to suit different types of contracts and serve different public and commercial buyers, including state-owned enterprises.

Therefore, according to legal provisions, local public authorities must carry out public procurement through the digital public procurement system MTender, with the exception of low-cost procurement for which the organisation of online tenders is only optional. According to IDIS Viitorul, to ensure greater transparency as to how public authorities purchase goods and services using public funds, it is necessary for low-cost procurement to be included in the digital public procurement system as well.

MTender uses all eGovernment solutions that have been developed by the e-Government Agency (egov.md) with the support of the World Bank: MCloud, MConnect, MPass, MSign, MPay, and eFactura.

The EU Delegation to the Republic of Moldova is currently supporting the Ministry of Finance on the further development of MTender for the years ahead.

The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine (MEDT), in line with the Law “On Public Procurement”, created a special Information Resource of the Authorised Body in the field of public procurement. Its aim is to disseminate information on the application of public procurement legislation, as well as on the effective implementation of the state procurement policy by the Authorised Body.

The ProZorro Infobox (infobox.prozorro.org), a knowledge centre on public procurement, provides information for customers and suppliers about all the innovations in the ProZorro system and get answers to all their questions. It also shares methodological materials, explanatory notes, online training courses and a forum for discussing public procurement issues among customers, suppliers, and representatives of the ProZorro team and the MEDT.

In 2019, the MEDT developed the “Guidelines on ethical conduct in public procurement” for public authorities, local self-governments and other organisations engaged in public procurement. These Guidelines are not a legally binding document, yet it provides important recommendations for public authorities and local self-government to ensure accountability and transparency. Specific sections of the Guidelines relate to openness and transparency during all stages of public procurement, non-discrimination and prevention of corruption.

The external audit coverage in Albania is limited. As a matter of example, in 2013, only an 8% of public entities (accounting for 40% of budget spending) were audited. The independent Supreme State Audit Institution publishes an annual report on the implementation of the budget. However, there is currently no certification or audit opinion on the individual financial statements of central or local budget institutions or on the consolidated fiscal statement.

In Armenia, the audit of state institutions is conducted by the Audit Chamber. The mission of the Audit Chamber is to perform high-quality external state audit, which aims to prevent violations from happening in the areas of public funds and property management, thus improving efficiency.

A legal and institutional framework for external audit has been established in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The external audit is performed through four institutions, the Audit Office of the Institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Audit Office of the Institutions of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Main Audit Service of the Republika Srpska, and the Audit Office of the Public Administration and Institutions of the Brčko District of Bosnia and Herzegovina in accordance with four accompanying laws.

Although the legislative framework is sound, SIGMA states  that one of the problems is that audit offices do not have a constitutional basis in accordance with international standards. This means that, although the laws guarantee the independence and autonomy of audit institutions, they are not adequately protected because laws can be changed more easily than the constitution. In the early 2000s, Bosnia and Herzegovina became a member of the international and European organisation of audit institutions – INTOSAI and EUROSAI. All audit institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina have accepted the application of relevant International Standards of Supreme Audit Institutions (ISSAI) and other international audit standards. In accordance with the laws, the financial audit of local authorities is carried out by the competent entity audit institutions.

The Auditor General of Kosovo* is the highest institution of economic and financial control; the National Audit Office (NAO) is an independent institution that supports the Auditor General in performing his/her duties. Auditing activities play an important role in ensuring that the interest of taxpayers and other stakeholders are maintained while enhancing public accountability.  

The Auditor General reports to the Assembly of Kosovo* and is entitled to control all the financial and administrative processes, as well as other activities, programmes and projects managed by public institutions, including the process and proceeds from the sale of assets, privatisations and concessions. The reports compiled by the National Audit Office aim at promoting accountability and providing a solid basis to hold the managers of each budget organisation into account thus increasing public trust in how the public funds are spent.

The National Audit Office was established by the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). As one of the most important institutions in Kosovo*, for more than 10 years the National Audit Office has been chaired by an international auditor, who performed the conferred mandate with the support of local personnel.

During 2019, NAO continued to increase the audits portfolio, by including more publicly owned enterprises and budget organisations. In total, NAO completed 119 Regularity audits (Audit of the Annual Financial Report of the Kosovo* Budget of 2019, 95 budget organisations (27 central level institutions, 30 independent institutions and 38 local level institutions, 14 publicly owned enterprises and 9 audits of projects (funded by donors) and 13 Performance Audits.

Full membership in the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) is considered one of the greatest achievements in the history of public sector external audit in Kosovo*. This membership enabled the exchange of knowledge and experiences with Supreme Audit Institutions of 194 member states of this Organisation in order to develop institutional capacity to implement duties and responsibilities with high professional integrity.

The EU-Moldova Association Agreement includes commitments (Article 22) related to Public Administration Reform. Among the key areas for cooperation in the field of public finances are: budgetary policy, internal control, financial inspection, and external audit which regulates the budgetary and accounting systems, internal control, financial inspection and external audit, the fight against corruption and fraud.

In addition to this, Article 49 (e) of the same agreement puts in place external audit standards set internationally by the International Organisation of the Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI).

In the course of sweeping decentralisation reforms, local budgets grow significantly, but the external audit of local public authorities remains underregulated. As stated in the studies by OECD “Maintaining of the momentum of decentralisation in Ukraine”, “there is no adequate system of indicators for monitoring, evaluating and controlling the finances and budget of the subnational level”. As a result, there is an increasing number of educational initiatives that empower citizens and teach local authorities to properly develop, implement and control public budgets.

Although the external audit remains not a very common practice, the requirements as to the public information enhance the accountability of the local governments, as well as provide citizens with necessary tools to control the use of public funds. For example, to ensure the proper implementation of the principle of transparency and publicity of the budget process (Article 7 of the Budget Code), the Parliament adopted the Law No. 183-VIII “On Open Use of Public Funds”. According to this Law, public authorities, local government bodies, state and municipal enterprises must publish information about the use of public funds on the Single web portal on the use of public funds.

Additionally, in 2018, the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine initiated the creation of the state web portal of the budget for citizens so that to implement the ‘Concept of creating an integrated information and analytical system "Transparent Budget"’ adopted by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.The portal provides information about the budget process and its participants and presents state and local budgets indicators. The portal also contains the BOOST-analysis tool developed according to the World Bank methodology. It is designed to analyse budgets at all levels: from the small village to the big city and state, in terms of both revenues and expenditures.

Article 13 of the Law No. 139/2015 “On Local Self-Government” stipulates that «local self-government units shall be subject to external audit by central government bodies with regard to the use of conditional and/or delegated funds provided by the State budget and/or funds of foreign aid, allocated to them according to the agreements signed by the central government». Moreover, as per Article 43 of the same Law, each local self-government unit is subject to external audit by the State Supreme Audit, and any audit report should be made available to the public. In exceptional circumstances, local executive bodies may be subject to audits conducted by specialised auditing companies.

The State Supreme Audit Institution (ALSAI) is the highest external audit institution in Albania. In accordance with its functions, rights and duties, apart from the audit role, the ALSAI can address criminal prosecution bodies when further tracking of audit findings is part of their competence and address the highest state bodies in case of noncompliance with its recommendations, as set forth in Article 15 of the Law No. 154/2014 “On the Organisation and Functioning of the State Supreme Audit Institution”.

According to the Armenian Constitution, the Audit Chamber is "an independent state body, which conducts audit, in the field of public finance and ownership, over the lawfulness and effectiveness of the use of the State Budget and community budget funds, loans and credits received, as well as state- and community-owned property. The Audit Chamber is entitled to conduct inspections of legal persons only in the cases prescribed by law”.

The Law on Audit Chamber states that the Audit Chamber is an independent state body conducting external state audit. The Audit Chamber aims to provide the public and the National Assembly with timely, professional and impartial information on public finances, public funds, state budgets, credits, loans, and the legality and efficiency of the use of state property.

Four laws regulate external audit in Bosnia and Herzegovina –Law on Audit of Institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina,  Law on Audit of the Public Sector of the Republika Srpska,  Law on Audit of Institutions in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina,  Law on Audit of Public Administration and Institutions in the Brčko District of Bosnia and Herzegovina.  All four laws are in line with relevant international regulations and standards. In order to more efficiently coordinate and implement joint internal and international activities, a Coordination Board of Audit Institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina was established. All audit offices/services, in accordance with the four mentioned laws on external audit, conduct financial audits, performance audits, and special audits. Local levels of government are subject to external audit by the Audit Office of the Institutions of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina or the Public Sector Audit Service of the Republika Srpska. Given a large number of institutions subject to mandatory annual audit, the audit of local levels of government in the Federation of BiH and the Republika Srpska is carried out according to annual plans. When adopting annual audit plans, risk analyses are performed to identify other agencies or institutions in need of audit. Indicators considered include financial significance, previous audits, available human resources, requests for audit from other competent authorities, collected business information, and other data.

The functional and financial independence of the SAO is guaranteed under Article 69 of the Constitution of Georgia. In addition, the work of the SAO is regulated by the Organic Law of Georgia on the State Audit Office, which sets the mandate, responsibility and organisational structure of the SAO. Apart from examining the spending of public funds vis-à-vis all public institutions (including municipal public institutions) and state-owned enterprises in Georgia, the mandate of the SAO also includes the monitoring of political party financing. The SAO is only entrusted with an oversight function and does not have a mandate to put forward any sanctions. Nevertheless, under Article 24¹ of the Law on the State Audit Office, it has an obligation to immediately report possible criminal activity discovered during the audit process.

The institution of the Auditor General was integrated into the Constitution of Kosovo* in 2008 and, shortly after, the Law on the Establishment of the Office of the Auditor General of Kosovo* and the Audit Office of Kosovo* was adopted.

In June 2016, the Assembly of Kosovo* promulgated the Law on the Auditor General and the National Audit Office, which substituted the old one. It marked the completion of legal framework on auditing and the full ownership of these local institutions.

The Court of Accounts (CoA) is a Supreme Public Audit Institution and acts in accordance with the provisions of the Law on the organisation and operation of the Court of Accounts No. 260 of 7 December 2017. It exercises control over the formation, administration and use of public financial resources and public patrimony management, by conducting external audit in the public sector and ensuring compliance with international standards on best practices in the field of external public audit by the country. The relevant law guarantees the independence of CoA.

The Public Administration Reform Strategy for 2016-2020 sets out the government’s vision, including the goals of “developing effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels” (SDG target 16.6) and to “ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels” (SDG target 16.7). External and internal audits are foreseen in the PAR strategy.

Article 87 of the Law on Local Public Administration also provides that the method of financial management organisation and control in the public local administration authority is subject to internal and external audit.

The Chapter V of the Budget Code of Ukraine sets rules on the control and audit of public finances. In line with the Code’s Article 110 and Article 15 of the Law No. 576 “On Accounting Chamber”, the Accounting Chamber of Ukraine (ACU) provides financial audit of the money transferred between the state and local budgets. The ACU defines the equity, lawfulness and effectiveness of such transfers between administrators and recipients of public funds.

While the ACU acts on behalf of the Parliament, the State Audit Service of Ukraine,  the State Treasury of Ukraine and local finance authorities perform financial control on behalf of executive bodies (Articles 111-113 of the Budget Code). They control the compliance of local authorities with budget legislation even though the co-ordination of these institutions remains poorly regulated.

The violation of the budget legislation (all forms of violation are listed in Article 116 of the Budget Code) leads to administrative (Article 164-12 of the Administrative Code) or criminal (Articles 210-211 of the Criminal Code) liability.

In order to increase transparency on account standards and financial statements, public authorities should establish a sound internal budgetary control regime, produce publicly released annual reports and perform an external audit of those annual reports. Local authorities are advised to disclose and publish the external audit reports, and to adopt the Audit Reporting Guidelines published by ALSAI.

Armenia is a member of International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) since 1998. Armenian Audit Chamber is guided by INTOSAI’s International Standards of Supreme Audit Institutions (ISSAI), such as the International standards of higher accounting authorities, including Rules of ethics (ISSAI 130), Quality control for higher audit institutions (ISSAI 140), Basic principles of public sector audit (ISSAI 100), Basic principles of financial audit (ISSAI 200), Principles of performance audit (ISSAI 300), Basic principles of compliance audit (ISSAI 400), etc. These standards are also available at the official website of the Audit Chamber.

Improving the work of external audit institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of the strategic goals of public administration reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This primarily refers to strengthening the role and capacity of audit institutions and mechanisms for better implementation of audit recommendations.  Although parliamentary mechanisms for examining audit reports have been established at all levels of government, the level of control varies and is very limited. The European Commission states that the influence of all audit institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina is limited, and that it is necessary to improve the level of implementation of recommendations. It further states that all audit institutions need to have better media coverage and develop their communication strategies to enhance the impact of their work.  In the period 2006-2016, the Coordination Board, within its competencies, adopted a number of guides and guidelines for financial audit, quality control in auditing, performance audit guide, IT audit guidelines and a guide for quality assurance of audit performance. SIGMA states that all audit institutions need to compile a document that would include all audit processes, listing templates and models to be completed alongside other supporting documents. Such a document would allow employees to understand better the processes and roles that each of them has.  In order to approximate the work of external audit, in May 2019, a Short Guide to the Audit Office of the Institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina was published.

The SAO regularly publishes best practice audit guidelines for public institutions, as well as for the conducting the audit itself. Generally, the guidelines produced by SAO do not have a legally binding nature, but there are some regulations that are enshrined in the Decree of the General Auditor – for example, the Code of Ethics of State Audit Office Auditors. In addition, SAO publishes guidelines on the development of budgets, which can be useful for local self-governments during the preparation of the municipal budget. Recommendations of the above-mentioned guideline cover results-based budgeting, how to link specific targets to the budget, formula-funding, and agency-level budgetary performance incentives. These tools and recommendations can be used to improve the structure and quality of municipal budgets, which will later have a positive effect during audits conducted by SAO.

Audit is a qualified examination of legal and financial compliance or performance, carried out to satisfy the requirements of management (internal audit), or an external audit entity, or any other independent auditor, to meet statutory obligations (external audit). In addition to the Law on the Auditor General and the National Audit Office, the Office of the Auditor General drafted the Audit Quality Management Guide and Performance Audit Guide.

The Court of Accounts is assigned as the responsible institution for the external audit of the management of public funds in Article 13 of the Law No. 260 of 7 December 2017 on the organisation and operation of the Court of Accounts. The CoA has successfully performed several audits in recent years.

According to the Court of Accounts Report on the administration and use of public financial resources as well as public patrimony during 2020, the Court recorded a lower degree of compliance of the local public authorities with the Court's audit recommendations. While the degree of compliance with audit recommendations at the level of central public authorities is about 60%, at the level of local public administration it is much lower (20%), and in some cases there is no compliance.

There are several guides developed by the Court of Accounts:

• Guidance on the audit of state revenues;
• Guide on key indicators for evaluation of the audit activity, including in the monitoring of the execution requirements and implementation of the Court of Auditors’ recommendations;
• Guidance on the strategic planning process of performance audits;
• Quality Framework Guidelines.

As part of an assessment of fiscal risks associated with local governments, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recommends local authorities to roll out the internal audit function to all budget entities: ”international experience suggests that seeking to strengthen the internal control framework within budgetary institutions — where managers are given greater flexibility but in an environment of robust transparency and accountability — is the best solution to promoting good public financial management outcomes”.

According to the IMF, the key elements of a strong and modern internal control regime are:

• Enhanced flexibility for managers in executing their budgets;
• A shift away from control over inputs toward attainment of outcomes;
• A clear legal requirement for senior managers in budgetary institutions to establish a sound internal control regime;
• Strengthened reporting regime, requiring agencies to produce a publicly released annual report with Annual Financial Statements;
• External audit of the annual reports of all agencies.
• The OECD recommends Ukrainian authorities to extend the remit of the Accounting Chamber of Ukraine to subnational governments in order to improve external audit and the governance of public investments across levels of government for regional development in Ukraine.

Also, under the auspices of the United Nations Peacebuilding and Reconstruction Program, a handbook on financial activities of the local government was prepared. It contains a separate chapter dedicated to the transparency and accountability in the system of financial management of local governments. The handbook provides helpful guidance on how local governments can effectively initiate and facilitate the system of citizen’s control and participatory audit of the local budget and financial assets of the municipal enterprises.

In 2020, Albania addressed part of the OSCE recommendations for improving the organisation of elections. The passage of electoral reform, while partly positive, also included amendments that were added without the agreement of the opposition. Conclusions from the March European Union Council meeting stipulate that prior to the first intergovernmental conference opening negotiations between Albania and the European Union, “Albania should adopt electoral reform fully in accordance with OSCE/ODHIR recommendations, ensuring transparent financing of political parties and electoral campaigns”. Additionally, the negotiation framework, which had to be adopted by the Council, must reflect that Albania has implemented the agreed-upon electoral reform and that the Constitutional Court has issued a final decision on the lawfulness of the June 2019 local elections.

Political parties are vital to the establishment of a democratic society. Availability of funding is crucial for political parties, without which they cannot develop and gather enough voters to win the election. In a democratic society, the transparency of funding, and the accountability of the parties to the public is crucial to gaining public trust. Therefore, democratic states must not only create favourable conditions for the establishment and development of new political parties, but also provide conditions for their lawful, responsible activity. Illegal access to funding for parties should be prevented as a result of proper state and public control. 

Political parties have traditionally been considered one of the least trusted institutions in Armenia. According to the Caucasus Barometer 2015 survey conducted by the Caucasus Research Resource Center (CRRC), among 17 Armenian institutions political parties enjoyed the lowest public trust - only 8%. A public opinion survey conducted by the International Republican Institute in 2018 showed that only 5% of respondents considered the activities of the political parties to be completely transparent and open. Increasing the role and significance of the political parties in the Republic of Armenia is imperative today, taking into account that after the constitutional amendments of 2015, the state has passed to the parliamentary form of government.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the issue of financing political parties is attracting a lot of attention from politicians, officials of election bodies and commissions, and representatives of the academic community, especially civil society, which is closely following this issue. A democratic society can function successfully only if the access of political parties to resources is equal, fair and transparent because "political parties not only create a political agenda but also shape the institutional, economic and overall social development of the country, and supervise the administration and control the distribution and management of public resources."  The greater the degree of control of political parties over state institutions and society, the greater the risk of corrupt practices. Bosnia and Herzegovina has a legislative framework regulating the financing of political parties. However, as in many other areas, the legislative framework is not sufficient to prevent abuses.

Articles 3 to 7 of the Law on Financing of Political Parties of Bosnia and Herzegovina stipulates that a political party can be financed from the membership fee, voluntary contributions from legal and natural persons, publishing activities, sales of propaganda material and organisation of party events, incomes generated by property owned by a political party; the budget of Bosnia and Herzegovina, entities’ budgets, cantonal budgets, the budget of Brčko District of BiH, and from a budget of other units of local government in accordance with the law; profit from the income of the enterprise owned by a political party only for culture-related or publishing activities, loans from the banks.

 The annual income of the political party generated by owning property or through the owned enterprise may not exceed 20% of the amount of the total annual income of the party. According to Article 4 of the Law, any income exceeding 20% for the above-mentioned activities shall be donated to one or more charitable organisations registered in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

 The total amount of contributions to a political party:

-             made by a natural person shall not exceed the amount of BAM 10.000,00

-             made by the legal entity shall not exceed the amount of BAM 50.000,00

-             made by a member of a political party during one calendar year shall not exceed the amount of  

-             BAM 15.000,00

The funds from the budget are allocated to political parties, namely to the coalitions of political parties in the manner that:

a)           30% of the total amount of funds is equally distributed to all political parties, namely the coalitions of political parties that won the mandate,

b)           60% of the total amount is distributed equivalent to the number of delegates' mandates that each political party, coalition of political parties, and/or independent candidate hold at the time of allocation.

c)           10% of the total amount is distributed to parliamentary groups proportional to the number of seats belonging to less represented gender.

Financing of political parties is one of the most discussed issues in Kosovo*. Despite the legal framework, financing of political parties and their campaigns lack transparency, and the relevant legislation remains weakly implemented. The civil society and the international community have criticised political parties in Kosovo* for the lack of transparency when it comes to reporting revenues and expenditures. More information available here, here and there.

In this way, the Law on Financing of Political Parties was amended and completed in 2012 and in 2013 with the aim to increase transparency and accountability of political parties. One of the changes that were made concerns the financial control of political parties. The amending law regulates that the Assembly of Kosovo* audits annual financial reports and campaign financial statement reports of political parties before the Central Election Commission publishes them. In order to implement this legal obligation, the Assembly of Kosovo* together with the Committee for the Oversight of Public Finance selects through a public competition at least 10 licensed auditors to audit these reports. However, this legal change did not improve the situation nor increased transparency due to the fact that the Assembly failed to select external auditors. Consequently, the Central Election Commission did not publish reports of political parties for years.

As a result, civil society and international organisations in Kosovo* recommended that the Law on Financing of Political Parties be amended. In June 2020, 100 civil society organisations protested against the draft law on financing of political entities claiming that it violated Kosovo*’s Constitution and international party funding regulations. Since 2017, the Agenda for European Reform emphasises the need to amend the Law on Financing of Political Entities. The European Commission report on Kosovo* also emphasises the need to further strengthen the electoral process and the adoption and implementation of laws to address high-level corruption in accordance with the opinions of the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission).

In 2018, the Government of Kosovo* established a working group to amend the Law on Financing of Political Parties and the Law on General Elections. After the working group drafted a new law on the financing of political parties, it was sent for opinion to the Venice Commission. Following the opinion of the Venice Commission, the Government proceeded with the draft for approval in the Assembly of Kosovo* after making some changes regarding the allocations to the democratisation fund.

In the Assembly, the draft law was treated by the Committee on Budget and Finance, which established a working group for the draft. Civil society, international organisations and the members of the Assembly were excluded from this working group, keeping it very closed and away from the public. This working group made major changes to the proposed draft – many of them contrary to the opinion of the Venice Commission. Later on, in 2019, the civil society requested the withdrawal of the draft law after assessing that the interventions made in it by the working group reduced the transparency and accountability of political parties to the public.

In this way, the Government withdrew the law from the Assembly. In July 2020, the new Government reactivated the drafting of the law, requiring in advance the opinion of the civil society. In September 2020, the Government sent the draft law to the Assembly, where it was expected to be reviewed and voted by the end of 2020; however, due to the dissolution of the Assembly, it is expected that the draft law be voted in the following legislature.

Current regulations of the process of financing political parties were adopted based on international standards in the field. However, given the fact that some international standards have recently been revised or published in a new version, national normative acts should be revised accordingly.

The Central Electoral Commission is responsible for supervising and controlling the political parties’ financing. However, according to civil society reports on monitoring political parties and electoral campaign financing (see the reports here and here), the capacity of the Central Electoral Commission is still quite low in this regard. With a few exceptions (verification of donors and their income), the electoral authority does not have effective tools and mechanisms to fully check the correctness of the information in political parties financing reports regarding their political promotion activities.

On 28 May 2021 the President of the Republic of Moldova held a meeting with the Supreme Security Council to discuss the topic of the risk of corruption in the process of political parties and electoral campaigns financing. As a result of this meeting, it was decided that the Presidency of the Republic of Moldova would set up a working group to further develop recommendations for the amendment of the legal framework on political parties and electoral campaigns financing, as well as of the criminal legislation, thus tightening sanctions for illegal financing of political parties or electoral campaigns.

The Promo-LEX election observation and monitoring of political financing in the Republic of Moldova shows the following conclusions on political parties and electoral campaigns financing:

• Political parties’ activity and their financing is mostly based on subsidies from the state budget to the detriment of other sources of income.

In 2020, the revenues reported by political parties were constituted at 62% from the subsidies allocated from the state budget, and only 33% from membership fees and donations (5% were from other sources). This shows a decrease in citizens’ involvement in political activities, including through donations made to the political parties. 

• Low level of transparency regarding political parties and electoral campaigns financing.

Despite the fact that the legal framework requires the submission of semester-based and annual reports to the Central Electoral Commission and publication of those reports (in the case of elections - weekly reports), under the shield of personal data protection, public access to the data from political parties’ financial reports is limited. Thus, interested parties do not have access data about donors such as their job / occupation, place of residence, which makes it difficult to identify whether specific donors, especially those working in the public administration indeed had the resources to make the respective donations (usually the salaries of public servants are low and often their donations are suspected of not being always legitimate). In addition, the submitted reports, which are accessible to the public, do not meet the criteria of open data – the format used for their publication does not allow for an analysis of the information.

• Low transparency and large discrepancy between political parties’ observed/monitored expenses and official expenses reported to the Central Electoral Commission.

The political parties do not report all the expenses incurred for the political activities carried out during the inter-electoral and electoral periods. According to Promo-LEX monitoring reports on political parties’ finances (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020), there was a constant significant difference between parties’ officially declared expenses and expenses observed by monitors.

Nowadays, political parties in Ukraine may be funded from two sources: (1) contributions from individuals and legal entities and (2) state financing. The state financing of political parties was introduced as part of the overall anti-corruption reforms launched after the Euromaidan Revolution. The new provisions were designed to ensure accountability of the funding of political parties and reduce the influence of private capital. They took force on 1 July  2016. The legislation meets international standards for establishing effective financing and ensuring the transparency of party finances. It was positively assessed by the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO), the Venice Commission and the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

In May 2021, NACP officially launched the Unified State Register of Political Parties Reporting – the POLITDATA (https://politdata.nazk.gov.ua). It simplifies the reporting process for political parties, as well as enhances the level of transparency of the funding process. The register is designed to provide citizens with free access to the information and constitutes a convenient tool to scrutinize the revenues and spendings of the political parties. The information from the register is available in the form of open data and can be automatically processed via open API.

Financing of political parties is regulated by the Law No. 8580 “On Political Parties” and by the Electoral Code of Albania approved with Law No. 10019, as amended.

Paragraph 2 of Article 15/1 of the above stated law stipulates that «The financing of political parties is guided by the principle of transparency. Data on the financial resources of the parties, as well as on their expenses are always published”.

This law entitles the Central Election Commission (CEC) as the body responsible for monitoring and overseeing the funding of political parties, ensuring that it is in compliance with the rules set, and in order to do so, the political parties are obligated to submit their financial reports once per year to the CEC. Further, the CEC is entitled to decide the specific amounts of public funding that each party will receive in the form of annual financial funding provided by the law, following the instructions set by Article 19 of this law “On Political Parties”.

Article 23/1 of the Law No. 8580 “On Political Parties” stipulates that:

1. Each political party must record in a special register, according to the format approved by the Central Election Commission, the amount of funds received from each natural or legal person, as well as data related to the clear identification of the donor. In any case, the donor, at the time of donation, must sign a donation declaration, according to the format approved by the Central Election Commission. The list of persons who donate amounts not less than 100 thousand ALL, as well as the respective value, must always be made public.

2. The donation of non-public funds, with a value greater than ALL 100 thousand, should be done only in a special account, opened in a bank by the political party. The person responsible for the finances of the political party, within three months from the establishment of the political party, declares to the Central Election Commission the number of the bank account, opened for this purpose. The bank account number for each political entity is published on the official website of the Central Election Commission.

3. It is prohibited to benefit from non-public funds, carried out by entities that do not declare their identity or whose identity is clearly not defined by the political party beneficiary of the non-public fund.

4. Every expense incurred by the political party is performed and documented respecting the tax legislation in force.

This Article is very important in guaranteeing transparency in the financing of the political parties.

Chapter III/1 of the law “On Political Parties” named “Financial funds and expenditure of political parties during the election campaign” was repealed by the law no 135/ 2020.

Under Article 3, paragraph 5/1 of the Electoral Code is acknowledged also the importance of transparency in the “…Electoral subjects bear the obligation for transparency and publication of election revenues and expenditures towards the Central Election Committee CEC, the persons in charge of auditing or monitoring and the public”.

Article 86 of this Code expresses the sources of election campaign financing “The sources of campaign financing for electoral subjects are:

a) funds provided in advance from the State Budget for registered political parties as electoral subjects;

b) the income of the electoral subject itself created according to the law;

c) gifts for the electoral subject and its candidates, in monetary value, nature or services provided, according to article 92/1 of this law;

ç) loans or credits received from political parties or their candidates according to the law. In no case the value of a loan or credit should exceed the amount of funds, according to point 2 of article 92/1 of this law.”

Election-registered political parties have a legal responsibility to report their candidates' income and expenses, and candidates must also comply with adjustments to the allowable donation limit. Candidates on the multi-name list must also record all donations received, ensure that in-kind donations are properly evaluated and registered, and keep one copy of the statement signed by the donor. Candidates can accept donations over ALL 50 000 only through a special bank account, even if the donations are less than ALL 50 000 but are made through the bank. These donations must be credited to the special account declared at the time of registration. If the candidate decides not to accept such donations (e.g., the candidate decides that donations should be sent to the special party account for the campaign), then the candidate is not obligated to open a special bank account.

It is illegal if an electoral subject or even a candidate accepts a donation from a natural or legal person who does not declare his or her identity, or whose identity is unclear.

The Constitution of Armenia stipulates that parties should publish annual reports on their sources of funding, expenditures, as well as their assets. This provision is further detailed in article 27, stipulating that the party is obliged to publish in the mass media the report on their sources of funding, expenditures, and assets, as well as the auditor's conclusion on the report in the cases provided by the law, and post it on www.azdarar.am. The party is then obliged to submit the evidence of its publication to the Corruption Prevention Commission. At the request of the Corruption Prevention Commission, the party is obliged to submit the information necessary for the verification of the report, documents, including information constituting banking secrecy, information on securities transactions, information constituting insurance secrecy, as well as credit information. Before making amendments to the Constitutional Law on Parties in December 2020, the parties were obliged to report to the Supervisory Service of the Central Electoral Commission․

The general and current financing of political parties is also regulated by the Constitutional Law on Parties. According to Article 23 the property of a party is formed from the following sources:

• entrance fees when joining a party;
• membership fees,
• donations,
• budget financing,
• income from activities defined by this Law.

The Law stipulates the limits of donations, acceptable sources, prohibited donations for parties. According to article 24, parties have the right to receive property, including cash, loans, repayment of the party debt by a third party, forgiveness of the party debt by the creditor, as well as receiving donations from individuals in the form of other activities in favour of the party. Special regulations and limits are envisaged in terms of real estate. In particular, the donation of real estate by one person may not exceed 200 000 times the minimum wage (AMD 200 000 000).

The financing of parties in the pre-election period is regulated by the RA Constitutional Law on the Electoral Code․ According to Article 8 of the Constitutional Law on the Electoral Code, within five days of the deadline to become registered for participating in elections, parties (party alliances) shall present to the Central Electoral Commission a declaration on the property and income of the party (of the parties included in the party alliance). The declaration shall contain the composition of the property as of the first day of the month in which the documents are presented to the Central Electoral Commission for registration, as well as the income received during the 12 calendar months preceding the month of the deadline for presenting the registration documents.

Finansiranje političkih partija i izbornih kampanja regulisano je Izbornim zakonom Bosne i Hercegovine , Zakonom o finansiranju političkih partija,  Zakonom o finansiranju političkih partija iz budžeta Republike, grada i opštine,  Zakonom o finansiranju političkih partija Brčko Distrikta Bosne i Hercegovine,  zakonima o sprječavanju sukoba interesa (na državnom, entitetskom i nivou Brčko Distrikta Bosne i Hercegovine), zakonima koji reguliraju pitanje registracije političkih partija, zakonima koji se odnose na poslovanje svih pravnih osoba, uključujući i političke partije u Bosni i Hercegovini, kao i podzakonskim aktima Centralne izborne komisije Bosne i Hercegovine.  Svi ovi propisi uređuju pitanja finansiranja predizbornih kampanja političkih partija, njihovog redovnog, godišnjeg finansiranja, dozvoljene izvore finansiranja, dozvoljene iznose i limite finansiranja iz privatnih izvora, obavezu prijavljivanja donacija i finansijskog izvještavanja, te pravila za izdvajanje sredstava za rad političkih partija iz budžeta političkih zajednica. Pored toga, zakonima su predviđene i sankcije za nepoštivanje zakonskih odredbi.

Članom 3. stav (1) Zakona o finansiranju političkih partija BiH, taksativno su pobrojani izvori finansiranja političkih partija, tako da se političke partije mogu finansirati iz: a) članarina, b) dobrovoljnih priloga pravnih i fizičkih lica, c) izdavačke djelatnosti, prodaje propagandnog materijala i organiziranja partijskih manifestacija, d) prihoda od imovine u vlasništvu političke stranke, e) budžeta Bosne i Hercegovine, entitetskih budžeta, kantonalnih budžeta i budžeta Brčko Distrikta Bosne i Hercegovine, te budžeta drugih jedinica lokalne uprave i samouprave u skladu sa zakonom, te f) dobiti od preduzeća koja su u vlasništvu političke partije. Članom 8. istog Zakona propisani su tzv. zabranjeni prilozi, odnosno kome se zabranjuje finansiranje političkih partija - organima uprave države Bosne i Hercegovine, entiteta, kantona, Brčko Distrikta Bosne i Hercegovine, te gradskim i općinskim organima; javnim institucijama; javnim preduzećima; humanitarnim organizacijama; neimenovanim, odnosno anonimnim donatorima; vjerskim zajednicama; sindikatima, udruženjima i drugim neprofitnim organizacijama koje se finansiraju javnim sredstvima bez obzira na iznos sredstava; pravnim osobama u kojima uloženi javni kapital iznosi najmanje 25%, te drugim državama, stranim političkim partijama i stranim pravnim osobama.

Političke partije imaju obavezu vođenja poslovnih knjiga, kao i obavezu podnošenja godišnjeg finansijskog izvještaja Centralnoj izbornoj komisiji Bosne i Hercegovine. U tu svrhu uspostavljena je Služba za reviziju političkih partija, a čiji zadatak jeste da pregleda i kontrolira podnesene finansijske izvještaje, te obavlja reviziju finansiranja političkih partija.  U slučaju nepostupanja po odredbama zakona, Centralna izborna komisija političkoj partiji može izreći novčanu kaznu u rasponu od 500,00 do 10.000,00 KM.

Currently, the financing of political parties is regulated by the Law on Financing of Political Parties. This law sets out the manners and conditions of funding of political parties in Kosovo*, and regulates the administration, monitoring and reporting on the spending of incomes of the political parties in order to increase transparency.

According to this law, financial and material sources of political parties are membership fees, donations, financing from the budget of Kosovo*, assets and income from the activities of the political entity such as publications, publications, sale of advertising materials, etc. Political parties are requested to submit an annual financial report to Central Election Commission. This financial report includes balance sheets, profit and loss statements and a statement showing every payment made to another person during the reporting period.

Public financing of political parties is done through the Budget of Kosovo*, from the Fund for Support of Political Entities. As per the Law on Financing of Political Parties, the Assembly of Kosovo* may allocate up to 0.05% of the Budget for financing of central and local election campaigns.

The law also provides for penalties in cases where political parties violate the provisions and obligations set forth therein. In order to increase transparency, the amending laws (Article 21, Article 7, Article 12, and Article 10) increased the fines for violating the provisions of the law. In cases when political parties do not pay its obligations such as fines imposed by the Central Election Commission, tax liabilities, or liabilities arising from the execution of final court decisions, then that amount is deducted from the budget allocated to the political party by the Fund for Support of Political Entities.

Political parties financing in the Republic of Moldova is regulated by the following normative acts:

• Constitution of the Republic of Moldova;
• Law no. 294 of 21 December 2007 on political parties;
• Electoral code;
• Contravention code;
• Criminal code;
• Tax code;
• Annual budget law;
• Government’s Regulation on Use of Cash Registers (CR) for Cash Settlements, adopted on 27 February 2019;
• Central Electoral Commission’s Regulation on Political Parties Financing.

According to the legal framework, political parties are financed both from private sources (membership fees, financial and material donations, and other legally obtained income) and the state budget (subsidies). Donations in support of political parties can be made both by legal entities (legally registered in the Republic of Moldova) and by individuals – citizens of the Republic of Moldova (residing on the territory of the Republic of Moldova or abroad). Public authorities and public institutions (including local authorities), public organisations and enterprises, other legal entities financed from the public budget or which have state capital, as well as international companies or companies created both by national and international representatives, are not allowed to finance or offer material support in any form for the activities of political parties, initiative groups, electoral campaigns or electoral contestants. In addition, legal entities that have been contracted for public procurement are not allowed to make donations to political parties.

According to Article 41 of the Electoral Code, for financing the activity of political parties, initiative groups and electoral campaigns only financial resources from the activity of employee, be it entrepreneurial, scientific or creative can be used. However, the legal framework does not regulate how to investigate, analyse and resolve cases in which citizens make donations that do not comply with Article 41 (when the source of the finances cannot be proven).

For example, in total, during the 2020 presidential elections and 2021 parliamentary elections, at least 800 registered donors giving over MDL 4 million did not declare any income or declared an income much smaller than the actual donated amount. Due to legal framework loopholes, the Central Electoral Commission has not been able to take any measure to investigate and assess those donations.

According to Article 43 of the Electoral Code, political parties’ promotion through all services and actions provided free of charge by physical and legal persons, as well as all voluntary activities during the period of signature collection or electoral campaign, must be evaluated and should be mandatorily indicated in the financial reports. However, political parties and electoral contestants do not report services, which were freely provided by volunteers. For example, during the presidential elections in 2020 and parliamentary elections in 2021, an estimated MDL 7 million were not reported by electoral contestants for activities carried out by volunteers, according to the observation reports from Promo-LEX from 2020 and 2021. Nevertheless, the responsible institutions did not apply sanctions based on these findings.

Financing of political parties is regulated by the Law of Ukraine “On Political Parties” (Sections IV and IV-1). Although generally, political parties are allowed to receive private contributions, the Law imposes a number of limitations on the sources of private financing. In particular, the parties cannot get contributions from state and municipal enterprises, public authorities and local governments, minors and incapacitated persons, foreign states, foreign legal entities and citizens, unregistered civic organisations, charity and religious foundations, and other political parties. Furthermore, to prevent lobbyism and corruption, Article 15 of the Law sets conditions for the private funding of political parties.

The state funding of political parties constitutes another source of their income. At the expense of the state budget, Ukraine finances the statutory activities of political parties, as well as reimburses the expenses related to the election campaigns (Article 17-1). State financing is provided to the parties which received not less than 5% of the total number of the votes and got into the parliament (Article 17-3).

The political parties are obliged to conduct an annual internal financial audit of their activities. A political party that has received state funding must also undergo an external independent audit of its financial statements. Finally, the political parties and their local branches are required to quarterly submit their financial statements to NACP. The statements are submitted electronically and are further included in the Unified State Register of Political Parties Reporting (Article 17 of the Law).

The state control over compliance with statutory restrictions on the financing of political parties is executed by NACP. The violations of the applicable requirements as to the sources of funding of political parties, as well as reporting obligations, may lead to administrative (Articles 212-15, 212-21 of the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offences) or criminal liability (Article 159-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

Aiming to increase transparency and to ensure compliance with the campaign finance rules, the Central Election Committee (CEC) is authorised to appoint persons who are tasked to monitor and follow the election campaign, including adherence to prohibitions on certain forms of campaigning. In addition, the CEC shall establish and maintain an online tool for citizens to report potential violations of campaign and campaign finance rules.

The law sets limits for donations and expenditures for campaign finance and provides disclosure requirements. The auditors selected by the CEC oversee the adherence to the campaign finance rules both before and after election day. The audit results will be published by the CEC, which can impose sanctions for financial violations. Several ODIHR Needs Assessment Mission Reports, interlocutors raised concerns over insufficient transparency of the campaign financing.

The amendments to the Electoral Code related to the structure of the CEC, aimed to address previous ODIHR recommendations regarding public and private financing of campaigns and its oversight, transparency of verification of candidate nomination documents, use of public resources for electoral purposes, legal protection of people reporting on misuse of administrative resources, electoral dispute resolution mechanism.

Decision № 403-N of the Government of the Republic of Armenia of April 20, 2017 defines the procedure for publishing the sources of funding and expenditures of the party, as well as the procedure for publishing, submitting the asset report, and the reporting form. Worth to mention that on 29 December 2020 amendments to the Constitutional Law on Parties have been adopted. The amended Article 27 of the Constitutional Law on Parties stated that the above-mentioned reports should be submitted by the parties to CPC. Accordingly, the Law stipulates that the form of the mentioned report and the procedure for its completion shall be established by the Commission. The transitional provisions of the law stipulate that the parties will submit their annual reports for 2021 in 2022 in an already changed order. Therefore, there was a need to repeal the decision N 403-N of April 20, 2017 on the publication of the report adopted by the Government, due to the fact that the legal provisions regulated by the decision are beyond the competence of the Government.

In 2010, the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung published the Handbook for the Election Campaign . A special chapter is dedicated to finances during the election campaign within which issues such as financial planning, financial committees, and successful securing of donations or sponsorship are addressed.

In 2018, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) published a report entitled Abuse of State Resources Research and Assessment Framework – Bosnia and Herzegovina ,  where special attention was paid to financing political campaigns. The report includes a detailed analysis of this and other areas susceptible to the misuse of state resources. It provides clear recommendations for overcoming a number of weaknesses of the existing system.

The Central Election Commission has developed an application for the electronic submission of financial reports of political parties. It serves to manage data on the financing of political parties and published a User Guide for submitting financial reports via the application "FI CEC BiH" and instructions for assigning a code to access the application FI CEC BiH for electronic submission of financial reports.  

The Central Election Commission enacted the Electoral Rule for Financing of Political Parties and Sanctions and the Election Rule for Limiting Campaign Expenses and Financial Declaration. The former regulates in detail the procedures for financing, administration, supervision and transparency of political parties. It also regulates the reporting of political parties. Furthermore, it sets out the penalties that the Central Election Commission can impose when the Law on Financing Political Parties and the Law on General Elections are violated in any form.

According to the Election Rule for Limiting Campaign Expenses and Financial Declaration, the Central Election Commission determines the maximum amount of expenses in a political campaign and no political party can exceed them. Every political entity is obliged to submit a report on the financial declaration of the campaign. This rule regulates in detail what this report must include and it sets out sanctions that would be imposed in cases when provisions of this rule would be violated.

Since January 2020, political parties’ financial reports must be submitted to the Central Election Commission through a special informational system developed by the electoral authority “Financial Control” Information System, which is a part of the State Automation Information System “Elections” (SAISE). Interested parties should use the same informational system to monitor, analyse and assess political parties’ financial reports.

However, until September 2021, the Central Electoral Commission did not adopt any guidelines for using the “Financial Control” Information System. Instead, periodically, the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) and the Centre for Continuous Electoral Training (CCET) organise trainings for political parties’ treasurers on drafting and submitting Financial Management Reports. In addition, at stakeholders’ request, the CEC and the CCET are able to organise trainings for other interested parties.

All delivered financial reports are available on the CEC official web page. Political parties’ financial reports can be found through the “Financial Control” Information System or in pdf format (depending on the format used by political parties to deliver those reports to the CEC). On the other hand, financial reports delivered during electoral period are not yet available through the “Financial Control” Information System. Those reports can be found only in the specific section dedicated to a specific type of scrutiny. Unfortunately, the published reports do not meet the criteria of open data – their published format does not allow for a free analysis of the information reflected in the reports.

In order to verify the information from political parties’ reports, the following public data can be consulted: Public Procurement Agency’s official data regarding the awarded contracts for public procurement and official data regarding legal entities registered in the Republic of Moldova.

TI Ukraine, together with the TI Latvia, Latvian anti-corruption experts and other NGOs, published a handbook on Latvian Experience in control of political finance “Control of Political Finance. From A to Z. The Latvian Experience” where they described the best practices of Latvia in this area. The handbook aims to provide Ukrainian state authorities, local governments, civil society and media with special instruments.

The International Foundation for Electoral Systems created a Manual on political finance for political parties in order to raise awareness of Ukrainian political parties on issues of the reform of the financing of political parties and its nuances. The manual contains practical advice to party representatives on how to comply with the new legal requirements and avoid common mistakes in financial compliance.

On its website, the Integrity Building Office of NACP also features the guidelines and video instructions on the reporting obligations of the political parties and operation of the Politdata register.