A regular meeting of the Commission on Access to Information was held

On November 12, a regular meeting of the Commission on Access to Information was held in Nur-Sultan under the chairmanship of the Minister of Information and Social Development Aida Balayeva. The meeting, which was held in a remote format, was attended by representatives of central state and local executive bodies, media, non-governmental and other organizations. In the course of the meeting, the proposals of the Informburo.kz journalists Mikhail Dorofeev and Serikzhan Mauletbai to provide state bodies with access to information were discussed. Mass media representatives noted difficulties with access to information of state bodies, including classifying it as official information marked "DSP", as well as to open meetings, especially maslikhats. Also at the meeting the issue of involving citizens in the discussion of spending budget funds was considered. Vice Minister of Finance Ruslan Ensebayev presented new approaches to citizens' participation in public discussion of the budget. In particular, it is proposed to involve the population and public councils in the planning of budget investment projects. In turn, the deputy akim of the city of Almaty Ilyas Userov shared his experience in the implementation of the project "Budget of People's Participation" in the city of Almaty. A complicated mechanism of voting and project selection was named among the main problems at the end of 2020. Recall that the Head of State has been instructed to implement this project in all regions. The representative of the Urban Forum Kazakhstan Public Fund, Adil Nurmakov, also spoke on this topic, who were invited to work out the tactics of an information campaign, make voting available and ensure transparency at all stages of the Participation Budget. At the end of the meeting, the results of the analysis of the data contained in the information systems of state bodies carried out by the Zerde Holding were discussed. Summing up, Minister Aida Balayeva drew the attention of the meeting participants to the amendments to the Law "On Access to Information", prepared as part of the implementation of the Address to the people of Kazakhstan dated September 1, 2020. We are talking about the determination of the Ministry of Information and Social Development by the authorized body in the field of access to information and the preparation of an annual report on the state of the area of ​​access to information to the Head of State. Following the meeting, the Commission developed a number of specific recommendations to state bodies on the issues considered. The video recording of the online meeting is posted on the official page  on Facebook