Accountability through Transparency
Municipalities go for Transparency, Accountability by opening a new communication channel

www.skopje.gov.mk; www.resen.gov.mk; www.strumica.gov.mk; www.kavadarci.gov.mk; www.gazibaba.gov.mk; www.veles.gov.mk; www.bitola.gov.mk; www.kocani.gov.mk; www.stip.gov.mk; www.gostivari.gov.mk; www.e-struga.gov.mk

Purpose
To open a channel for citizens to influence and be informed about discussions and decisions within their municipality council and administration.

Application functionalities
Citizens can access the application via the municipality web pages and send questions and requests to any Council member or the Mayor and participate in the e-Forum. Information is available on-line about all events and meetings as well as the agenda for sessions in the council. The citizens can access draft documents, as well as to search through questions, requests, comments and proposals. The system offers statistics of submitted/answered/or rejected questions by the administration, mayor or the council members as respond to the citizens. The application has also a part for the internal administration within the Municipality.

Users
- Citizens
- Municipality administration and the mayor
- Council members
- NGO community

Specific Benefits
- Simple and modern channel for the citizens to communicate with the members of the council of their municipality, as well as with the municipality administration.
- Improved exchange of information regarding the discussions held and decisions made by the council.
- Increase the accountability and transparency of the work within the municipality councils in the Republic of Macedonia.

Status
The system is in operation since late spring 2007 in 11 municipalities across Macedonia. After a testing period the system will be offered to any other municipality.

MUNICIPALITIES STRIVE FOR TRANSPARENCY, ACCOUNTABILITY, November 2006

The e-Gov Project and ten municipalities sign agreement on the use of new accountability software

The "Accountability through Transparency" software pilot project, which will be implemented by ten municipalities- Resen, Bitola, Shtip, Veles, Kocani, Kavadarci, Gostivar, Gazi Baba, Strumica and City of Skopje - is designed to make it easier to track the work of the government and to foster dialogue between citizens and their municipal councils. Each participating municipality will make available at least one computer for citizens to use to access the "Accountability through Transparency" program, where they will be able to leave comments and ask questions about local government operations.

"If citizens don't like a decision made by their elected representatives, they can let them know. With this system, local authorities will know citizens want to hold them accountable for their actions and responsible for their promises," says Jerker Torngren, USAID's e-Gov Project Chief of Party.

Citizens will be able to connect to the web site of the municipality and select the "Accountability through Transparency" section, where they can open a dialogue with the local government administration and municipal council. The municipality administration will check all questions and comments received from citizens, and will ensure that questions are answered.

TENDER ANNOUCEMENT November 2006

ACCOUNTABILITY THROUGH TRANSPARENCY

The USAID e-Gov Project together with the Make Decentralization Work Project (M.D.W) will design and implement a software application called "Accountability Through Transparency".

This software application will improve the possibilities for citizens to be engaged in and informed about discussions held and decisions taken in the municipality council. It will thus increase the accountability and transparency of the work within the municipality councils in the Republic of Macedonia.

The tender documents consist of the Invitation to Submit Bids and a System Description. Copy of both documents can be found under Documents.

Following the deadline for submiting bids November 3rd, 2006 at 15:00 local time, the following 13 bidders submited requested documentation:

EIN-SOF
Gord Systems
Institute of Informatics
IT-GLOB
ITS Iskratel
MBS
Neocom
NextSense
Pexim
Seavus
Semos
Smart Solutions
SRC

After reviewing and evaluating all 13 bids, e-Gov Project decided to sign the contract with Seavus. Q&A Session