Institutions closed and the public cut off from decision-making

There are many tools and mechanisms that citizens and civil society organizations can use to participate and where they can contribute to good governance, however, people do not use them because they do not know that they exist, and they are not given enough time to use them to their full advantage.

This was the conclusion after a discussion and workshop on the state of good governance and recommendations for its improvement, which was organized by the Foundation for Internet and Society “Metamorphosis”.

During the discussion, several representatives from the civil sector from Macedonia presented the situation of good governance in the country, and then analyzed ways of improving the situation with representatives of NGOs from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and the Czech Republic.

Bardil Jashari, the Director of “Metamorphosis”, says that the project will contribute, through new technologies, to the voice of the people and make it stronger, more transparent, and public institutions should become accountable and bolster democracy.

“Citizens are cut off from the decision making. NGOs should encourage the public to use the instruments and tools, but the state institutions also have to have good will. In Macedonia, the public’s trust in public institutions tends to decline, however, we have reasons to be optimistic, countries involved in this project have a European perspective”, said Jashari, adding that Macedonian public institutions are currently very closed.

If we do not have good governance, then citizens are not satisfied, said Gordana Dimitrovska from the Ministry of Information Society and Administration.

“Reforms in Public Administration should provide the basics to face the challenges of good governance. We cannot speak of responsibility if we do not have rule of law. Fortunately, we have a massive involvement of civil society organizations in the third National Action Plan for Open Government Partnership, more than 490 organizations are involved, and we took over 100 measures and we implemented them”, said Dimitrovska, who before the event refused to talk to reporters. Journalists then blasted her for attending an event related to transparency, after not being transparent herself.

This event is part of the project “ACTION Visegrad SEE”, whose aim is to promote a vibrant civil society, which effectively mobilizes citizens to actively engage in issues related to good governance, the question of who influences policy and the decision-making process, on a national and regional level in the Western Balkans.

(www.meta.mk)