REPORT: Open Government Partnership in the Czech Republic

On 24th of September we hosted a round table with Věra Řiháčková Pachta. The aim of the event was to present a progress and discuss major findings and recommendations of the OGP Independent Reporting (IRM) summarized in the Progress Report on the Czech Republic. The background paper for this debate was written by Věra Řiháčková. In her report she evaluated the 2016-2017 progress of the 2016-2018 action plan. Special guest of the panel was Jeff Lovitt, member of the OGP IRM's International Experts' Panel.

The priorities of the Czech Republic’s third action plan continue from previous action plans, with a heavy focus on open data and professionalization of public administration. The Government Anti-Corruption Council serves as the multistakeholder forum, and the action plan is closely linked to the anti-corruption agenda. Future action plans could benefit from broadening civil society involvement in the consultative forum and designing more ambitious commitments with clear objectives and measurable activities.

Top Five Key Recommendations:

• 1. Improve the multistakeholder approach and action plan implementation oversight Raise the OGP profile by establishing a standing working committee on OGP under the Government Anti-Corruption Council with equal representation from public administration, civil society, academia, and other stakeholders.
• 2. Improve commitment formation Revise the government’s logic when approaching OGP commitments in order to verify a clear relation between the objectives and goals within the OGP initiative, and the results and activities defined in the written commitments.
• 3. Manage GDPR concerns within open data Respond to GDPR concerns and reflect these concerns in the commitment on open data in the next action plan.
• 4. Improve open contracting Require mandatory publication of the public subsidies and grant contracts in the register of contracts.
• 5. Improve access to information legislation Introduce an oversight body or information commissioner as part of the reform and amend the legislation to codify the information order issued by the superior administrative body.

The full report is available as a PDF on the right side of this article. A few pictures from the event can be found here.