New Entities Join Data Disclosure Platform
EghtesadOnline: Three ministries have been added to the list of official entities mandated to freely provide financial data to businesses and citizens alike, as part of the Freedom of Information Access platform.
The administration of President Hassan Rouhani established the System for Open Access to Information last week and now the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance, Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare, and Ministry of Energy, along with the Central Bank of Iran and the Planning and Budget Organization, have joined the system, according to the official news website of Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture.
Businesses and private citizens are now able to refer to the website and fill out a request which, if approved after review, will grant them access to "unclassified economic information and statistics" for these entities.
According to the executive directive of the law for free access to public information, the requests will be filed with a specialized commission that in turn will review and communicate them to the related bodies, effectively giving them a deadline of a maximum of 10 days to respond. If the requested data are approved, they will also be published on the website for everyone else to see, "unless they contain personal information".
As part of new transparency moves in the administration, according to Financial Tribune, the chairman of Majlis Economic Commission announced this week that the two-year-old law requiring economic entities affiliated to quasi-governmental bodies to make their financial statements transparent will be put into effect in the current Iranian month (started May 22).
As outlined by the director of the specialized commission that reviews the requests, official statistics, directives and regulations, information on agreements, the level of involvement of individuals in the implementation of decisions and details about citizens' complaints of the entities will be among information accessible to applicants.
They can also access objectives, obligations, policies, structures and mandates of the directors of the organization, inter-organizational correspondence and documents and how the system provides services.
As noted in the law for free access to public information, all organizations, bodies and entities affiliated with the government, revolutionary bodies, armed forces, the judiciary and legislature and all companies, organizations and entities affiliated with them and all the foundations and institutions run under the supervision of Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei will be obligated to disclose their information.
Furthermore, "private institutions offering public services, including banks" are subject to the transparency measures.