Conference “Transparency and Accountability”

The Institute for Communication Studies (ICS) organized the conference “Transparency and Accountability”, which was held on December 12, 2023. in Hotel Limak, Skopje starting at 10 am. In the opening address, the director of the Institute, Zhaneta Trajkoska, said that there is an epidemic of mistrust in the three authorities: executive, legislative and judicial. She emphasized the importance of transparent and accountable work as key to citizens’ trust. In his presentation, Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski said that he is satisfied with the level of transparency of the Government because it is responsive to requests for free access to information and, in general, in active transparency. According to him, negative evaluations by citizens are due to perception, not statistical data. Kovacevski announced that the transparency of the Government and public institutions will be increased by transparently announcing all public procurements. The Prime Minister assessed that transparency may not guarantee trust, but non-transparency definitely guarantees mistrust. Kovachevski believes that there is room to improve mobility in the judiciary, legislative and local government. The Ambassador of the United Kingdom, Matthew Lawson, emphasized that the openness of governments is important to detect and prevent corruption, which is the main concern of citizens. He specifically mentioned the importance of financial transparency and how taxpayers’ money is spent. There were also two sessions, the first one on Suppressed or cherished right to know transparency and trust in public institutions and the second one on Rethinking the culture for the responsibility of public institutions. The conference offered new perspectives and approaches for increasing trust in government institutions, with a focus on transparency and accountability in the rule of law and corruption. The Institute for Communication Studies organized the conference within the “Use Facts” project, which is supported by the British Embassy in Skopje. NEXT-EM company was also present at the event.