Responsible government and control of government

The package of reforms necessary for EU and NATO can be accomplished only in terms of responsible, transparent and accountable government, restraining from abuse of state resources for personal or party needs. For this purpose in the first six months, the Government of Republic of Macedonia will adopt a Strategy for good governance which will ensure increased transparency of all state institutions, obligatory consultations with citizens, business associations and civil society organizations and strengthened control of the Assembly.  

We will pay particular attention to full transparency of public spending. Dedicated work should help Macedonia move up the Open Budget Index and increase its budget transparency from 35 to 65.

In order to increase transparency, the Government of Republic of Macedonia will fully implement the concept of open government according to the Open Government Partnership. Therefore, the Government will: 

-    propose legislative changes to halve the legal deadline for responding to requests  for  access to public information from 30 to 15 days; 
-    introduce the principle of so-called "Active transparency" for institutions, which means disclosure (even when not required or requested) their programs (and draft programs), strategies, opinions and studies, data of organization and operating costs, decisions, acts and measures that affect the life and work of citizens and companies; 
-    provide process of guaranteed consultation with civil society organizations, chambers of commerce, trade unions and other stakeholders in the areas of work of government, when making new laws and changes to existing laws; 
-    increase by 10% annually the number of institutions which follow the recommendations for Open Data Approach; 
-    conduct a population census according to international criteria and standards. The data will provide state institutions, academic world and the civil sector with real analysis and creation of real policies in every sphere; 
-    propose to Parliament formation of a "Fiscal Council" as an independent body, composed of prominent experts in finance or economics, whose mission will be to assess the credibility of fiscal policy an ensure its transparency and predictability; 
-    annually renew the three-year fiscal strategy (under the principle of rollover) and publish it at the beginning of the year, after the priorities of the Government for the next fiscal year have been established. This strategy will be discussed and voted in the Parliament of Republic of Macedonia, to encourage debate on fiscal and budgetary aggregates, and represent  the basis of expectations by economic agents.
-    public debt will be published fully and regularly without exceptions and political calculations. We will floor amendments to the Criminal Code in the Assembly according to which public debt concealment will constitute a crime; 
-    publish data for guaranteed, and for not guaranteed debt of public enterprises and municipalities;
-    table motions that will oblige budget users, funds and public enterprises to submit to the Ministry of Finance detailed monthly reports on the disbursement of allocated budgetary funds, together with commitments made, including unsettled ones.  These data will be uploaded on a search platform and published on the website of the Ministry of Finance. With that, citizens will become active players in the oversight of possible abuse, because every citizen from his/her home computer, will be able to see in detail where money from his/her taxes and contributions has been spent; 
-    propose legislative changes to introduce an obligation, so final accounts of all budget users and public enterprises will be posted online; 
-    propose legislative changes so all offshore companies that invest in Macedonia will be obliged to publish  their true owners and submit the entire company history;
-    publish detailed monthly lists of all public servants and agricultural subsidies’ users in order to promote citizen control over administration and prevent abuse of power.