MOSCOW, April 24 (Itar-Tass) — The Open Government should destroy the absolute monopoly of officials on drafting laws and the assessment of their own activity, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said at a meeting of the State Council.
According to him, the “further work on the building of the Open Government system will consist of the four main elements.” “First, the mechanisms of the permanent and direct information exchange between the bodies of state authority, other official structures and the civil society,” Medvedev believes. “The transparency of the authority and its actions is the main condition for mutual confidence in the society and efficiency of the state policy,” he emphasised.
Second, the RF president continued, “professional and expert communities, all who want to make a contribution to the formation of the social and economic policy should get such an opportunity.” “The coordination structure may be a special commission, and the main expert venue - the expert council under the Russian government,” he added, explaining that “one of the tasks of these structures will be the development of the key indicators of efficiency of the activities of the government and separate federal bodies of executive authority.”
“Third, the Open Government should become another source of the permanent feedback,” the RF head of state is certain. “The Open Government system should create opportunities for the participation of active citizens and expert communities in the preparation of decisions of the bodies of state authority,” he explained.
In addition, Medvedev said, “it is necessary to thoroughly analyse information of the media the role of which in these processes cannot be overestimated.” “That’s why I have created an additional resource - the Public Television,” Medvedev pointed out. “I hope that starting from next year it will become an effective tool of the public discussion on increasing the state’s openness,” the RF president said.