What do ‘compliance’ and ‘implementation’ mean in your context? Thanks.
Patrice OpenTheGovernment.org<http://www.openthegovernment.org/> 202.332.6736 From: Stephan Anguelov [mailto:step...@aip-bg.org] Sent: Tuesday, April 16, 2013 11:40 AM To: Patrice McDermott Cc: Foianet Subject: Re: [foianet] call for information on ATI/FOIA compliance I must add that as far a government body is concerned with ensuring APIA compliance, currently it is a Directorate within the Council of Ministers. According to Article 16 of the APIA all obliged bodies of the executive branch file a summary of the report on APIA implementation (which they publish online - Articles 15 and 15a) as a part of their annual report to the CM. And the Council of Ministers includes a summary on APIA implementation in its State of the Administration annual report. The practical effect of this is that the lower executive bodies (including state and local government) are forced to establish and maintain APIA registers and thus actually implement the law. It must be noted that this obligation on creating reports does not extend to the other obliged subjects under the APIA, but, still, they are the minority. I should also mention that when losing an APIA case in court the administration (or, unfortunately, the information seekers) also have to pay the costs and expenses (fees for legal representation and court costs). Cheers, Stephan На 16.04.2013 16:31, Stephan Anguelov написа: Dear Patrice, In Bulgaria according to the Access to Public Information Act<http://www.aip-bg.org/en/legislation/Text_of_the_APIA/200432/> compliance with the law is ensured in two different ways. On the one hand, decisions on information requests are administrative acts and they are subject to judicial review. Consequently, if an official does not follow an obligation flowing from a judicial decision or ruling on the APIA<http://www.aip-bg.org/en/legislation/Text_of_the_APIA/200432/> she/he could receive an administrative sanction – a fine – by another judicial act under Article 43, paragraph 2, item 2 of the APIA<http://www.aip-bg.org/en/legislation/Text_of_the_APIA/200432/> in conjunction with Article 306 of the Administrative Procedure Code<http://www.sac.government.bg/home.nsf/0/D87D527946866EBCC2256FC600356287?OpenDocument>. On the other hand, concerning other breaches of the APIA<http://www.aip-bg.org/en/legislation/Text_of_the_APIA/200432/>, Articles 42 and 43 provide administrative sanctions (fines) for bad implementation of the law. However, the authority to establish the breach and sanction the guilty official is, in resume, either the same administration where the violation of the law happened or the Minister of Justice, concerning some specific subjects. Thus, this kind of administrative sanctions for violations of the APIA<http://www.aip-bg.org/en/legislation/Text_of_the_APIA/200432/> are virtually nonexistent. This is why AIP recommends in its annual reports<http://www.aip-bg.org/en/publications/annualreports/> for amending the APIA in order to “assign a specific public body to supervise, coordinate and control the APIA implementation and to impose sanctions.” For a fuller analysis see: Access to Information Programme annual report Access to Information in Bulgaria 2012<http://www.aip-bg.org/en/news/AIP_presented_the_Annual_Report_Access_to_Information_in_Bul/20130328008173/> – pages 24 – 26. Cheers, Stephan Anguelov AIP Legal Team На 15.04.2013 21:06, Patrice McDermott написа: There is no entity in the U.S. federal government who has clear authority (and willingness) to ensure that the federal agencies are actually complying with the requirements of our FOIA statute. Reports are provided, lots of #s given – but there are no repercussions (other than occasionally losing in court & having to pay the requestor’s attorney fees) for failure to follow the law. We are starting to discuss how this might most effectively and usefully be remedied in the US. How is compliance handled in other countries – both statutorily and in actuality (i.e., does any agency/bureau/office ever suffer for failing to follow the law and – if so – how?) What entity has responsibility for ensuring compliance? Thanks, in advance. Please reply to the list, as I am presuming the responses will be of interest more generally. We will compile and report back. Best, Patrice Patrice McDermott, Executive Director OpenTheGovernment.org<http://www.openthegovernment.org/> 202.332.6736
