BRATISLAVA, August 22, (WEBNOVINY) – Towns and villages need an extension of the virtual space so that they can publish contracts on the Internet in line with the proposed legislation. Chairman of the Association of Towns and Villages (ZMOS) Michal Sykora considers it a priority to connect all self-governments to the Internet. According to him, in particular small villages often do not have Internet access and therefore will not be able to comply with the draft amendments to the Civil Code and the law on free access to information that stipulate that all government offices will have to publish contracts involving state funds or state assets on the web as of January 1, 2011. Sykora told SITA news agency that first of all, all self-governments should be connected to the Internet, which is hard to perform considering the present possibilities of communication networks.
Last week, the Cabinet submitted to interdepartmental review draft amendments to the Civil Code and to the law on free access to information, according to which all contracts concluded by government authorities will have to be disclosed on the Internet before signing. „These contracts will become effective only after their publication, so that the public has a possibility of effective control,“ Prime Minister Iveta Radicova said at a press conference. „If the disclosure shows that the process was not in order, it will be possible to withdraw from the disclosed contract within ten days,“ according to the prime minister.
The ZMOS chairman said that the proposal needs to be discussed. „I personally do not think that publication of contracts or conditioning their effectiveness by publication on the web site is an automatic guarantee of cost cutting and of the most efficient management of public funds,“ he commented.
SITA