Freedom of information on the example of gmina Łapy of region Białystok

1. Freedom of information on the example of gmina Łapy of region Białystok Magdalena Mogielnicka Wyższa Szkoła Administracji Publicznej im. Stanisława Staszica w Białymstoku

2. City and gmina Łapy Herb city and gmina Łapy Flag city and gmina Łapy Name ofŁapy is the origin and originally meant- hunting hut. The legend involves the creation of the city with a nobleman Łappa Lubicz coat of arms, which settled here during the colonization of Mazowsze in the fifteenth century. Initially Łapy were originally noble hamlet, where the nobility has always cultivated the patriotic traditions. As a result of growth of the family created a series of backwaters, such settlements as Rechy, Brusięta, Barwiki, Korczaki, Pluśniaki, Wągle, Wity, Zięcie, Kosmyki, Łazie, Stryjce, Wojtysze. Some of these names disappear, and appear a new such a Goździki, Dębowizna, Bociany, Leśniki. In the twenties of the nineteenth century petty gentry count over 1000 inhabitants and 180 houses. Today, Łapy are the village communal rural-urban-profile industrial and agricultural region. In addition to the functions of the administrative center Łapy serve also as educational and medical center and the neighboring community.

3. Transparent community • There are the necessary information on the City Council in Łapy: Resolution of the City Council minutes of the session of the Council, Councillors wealth declarations, including contact details councilors, councilors and others shifts.Local government Municipal Łapy for its work guided by a policy of openness and transparency in public life. The principles of openness and transparency in public life has been determined on Workers in the Code of Ethics Municipal Office in Łapy. The Code was developed by the staff of the Municipal Office in Łapy in 2007 and has undergone public consultation.

4. Transparent community • Viewed a website Łapy, comprehensive and exhaustive information about the work of the Municipal Office and agencies of the community and how it is applied in practice the principle of clear and transparent municipal office. Symbolic, but also very practical, dimensions of transparency of the Authority are glass doors in the office of Mayor, Office of management and employees. In politics, community information Łapy big role does the Office of the Municipal website. Number of visits to the website shows that it is for many people, an important source of information. Continually improved and developed this tool to communicate with residents.Residents can enter in the comments and proposals relating to both the parties and the implementation of the policy of openness and transparency.

5. Transparent community • Sections and blocks of information, which is implemented by policy transparency and openness in local self government of Łapy: • Mayor We can find there all necessary information regarding the mayor ofŁapy the legal status of the Mayor, Office of the Mayor of biography, a list of persons who have exercised the mayor from 1990 Łapy and Others, Wealth declarations , contact the Mayor: Number telephone, e-mail , opening hours of the inquirers. The Mayor is responsible Published here are responses to questions mayor community residents.

6. Transparent community • Reports on the activities of the Mayor In this section are published reports that the mayor shall submit to the City Council on its activities. Since the beginning of the fifth term of office, these reports are published on the Office of City. City Council ŁapyHere you can find the necessary information concerning the Town Council in Łapy: resolution of the City, minutes from the Council session, councilors wealth declarations, including the contact details of elected representatives, and shifts in council. Municipal Finance of Łapy Transparent Municipality is also its finances transparent. Are provide here the information about the municipal budget and tax rates, as well as reports on budget implementation. Full transparency in finance relates to the topic of tax write-offs. Published on the Internet information on all tax redemptions, whose size exceeds 500 zł. However, on all redemptions and size information can be obtained in person at City Hall.

7. Transparent community • Code of Ethics for Employees of the Municipal Office in ŁapyChecks Presented here are the controls which are held in the Office. Call for workers There are published the information about job opportunities, placement or practice in the Municipality of Łapy or volunteer work. Through the Exchange job Łapy helps community find the employers and employees. Łapy encourages community to cooperate in volunteering with the Authority or another municipal entity. This is a good way, especially for fall only on the labor market for young people, to gain experience and new skills. Informationare posted here about all recruitment in the Municipality: Information about recruitment, performance and justification of choice.

8. Transparent community • Guide interesanteThe aim is to facilitate the Handbook of doing business in the Municipality. The guide is extensive to-do list with a description of the procedure at each of them. We can find here include information about required documents, settlement date, a preliminary appeal fees. TendersPublic and publicly available information on tenders organized by the municipality serves its interests.Tenders are advertised. That such information reaches the widest possible range of people potentially interested in the tender.

9. Transparent community • Sharing public information Responsibility of the Office is implementing the principle of public life. Public administration has embodied this principle in life, providing information in public (all the messages and documents produced by public authorities, bodies entities public property, and relating to the public and may be a public information). This follows from the overarching principle of the Constitution, the very essence of community and local government legislation, in particular the Law on Access to Public Information (Law of 6 September 2001, Coll. U. No 112, pos. 1198, as amended..) Access may be refused only in exceptional cases (as defined by law), and the refusal must be substantiated. Only a legal provision may be grounds to exclude a document from a set of public information, for example, resulting from the protection of classified information (state secrets, professional, tax), the privacy of individuals, business confidentiality (secrecy trade) and others. Refusal of information is in the form of an administrative decision. Refusal to disclose the information may be appealed against to the administrative court. The court, if it considers that the requested information is public, has ordered access. Violation of the law by making it available public information is punishable (who, contrary to the obligation for the obligation, does not provide public information, subject to a fine, the penalty of restriction of liberty or imprisonment up to a year). The office maintains a list of requests for public information (the list is open). Requests for public information may be submitted on a form, as well as in some other form, containing the necessary data. In the case of minor matters, which do not require special preparation, provides information without the need of the application. The office has the right to reimbursement media on which information has been transmitted.

10. Transparent community • Working with the media Request for comments Constantlyare replenished all the sections that residents can have full information about the activities of his government. Many of them are in the Announcements section. Residents as far as possible be kept informed about events in Łapy.Information on this subject can be found in the news section.Office staff are open to any suggestions and comments. Helpful in their expression may be a survey, which can be found on the website. In this way they are received opinion, advice, comments and conclusions about the inhabitants of the website of Gmina Łapy and municipal affairs.

11. Report on monitoring the implementation of the obligation to declare their property by officers of the province-level local self-government in Poland With the publication in 2009 by Transpency International Corruption Perceptions Index, Poland was ranked 49th place among 180 countries surveyed. Results of the national public opinion polls indicate that environmental officers occupying high public office are frequent cases of interconnection networks for filling positions in offices, companies, banks on the basis of relatives, friends or colleagues. There will also be information about the disregard by public officials, or obligation to declare their implementation in an inappropriate way. In 2005, signed by the authorities of the so-called legal world. Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, calling for action against corruption at high levels of government. Effectiveness of the anti-corruption measures depends not only on the regulation more and more of an anti-corruption legislation, but also from the control of the public, detect and punish corruption, and public education. The quality of social life determines the inevitability and universality of legal sanctions in the application of generally applicable rules of law, as well as community awareness-raising on their rights and exercise their capabilities. Prerequisite for the proper functioning of civil society is transparency of public life in countries with well-established democracy.

12. Corruption • Corruption-means decompose, wasting. Generally, corruption is reduced to using public office for private commercial gain. This phenomenon is universal, there is a greater or lesser degree in virtually all countries, irrespective of the location, cultural heritage and way of governance. Corruption is a timeless phenomenon of its level and scope are very different.

13. The international NGO Transparency International • The international NGO Transparency International publishes an annual ranking of the corruption phenomenon. The differences occur at the level of daily functioning of the legislative, executive, governments at all levels, the judiciary and the media. The differences boil down to se that, in some countries, bribes happen, but are subject to sanctions pathology, while in others they are almost universally endorsed standard

14. Transparency international • Transparency International, the global civil society organisation leading the fight against corruption, brings people together in a powerful worldwide coalition to end the devastating impact of corruption on men, women and children around the world.  • TI’s mission is to create change towards a world free of corruption.

15. Public information bulletin • Explicit information contained in the declarations of assets are made available in Public Information Bulletin, which is an official of publication data communications, created in order to make the information public in the form of a standardized system of data transmission network pages. Public Information Bulletinoperates on the basis of Article 8 and 9 of the Law on Access to Public Information, in accordance with the provisions of the Minister of Internal Affairs and Administration dated 18 January 2007 on the Public Information Bulletin1 1 Coll.U. no.10, pos.68

16. Project goals of „Transparency and competence” • pathologies which is to prevent exploitation by those positions performing public functions for the benefit of material in a manner contrary to the principles of social coexistence and the universally recognized standards of decency • establish effective methods for controlling the state property of public officials and other persons designated in the Act by specifying the directory information about the state of their property, which must be disclosed • launch a public debate on the current Polish regulations requiring the submission of claims to property in order to standardize them and to eliminate errors • increased sensitivity to the municipal officers required to submit accurate claims to property and pay particular attention to the possible consequences of their lack • analysis of the legal solutions applied in other developed democratic countries in the use of asset declarations as a tool of civic control over the administration

17. Bibliography • www.lapy.podlasie.pl • www.transparency.pl • Ruszewski J., Sitniewski P., Jawność i kompetencja III, Suwałki 2010