THE LAW OF THE KALININGRAD REGION Of Procedure to Disclose Information by Bodies of State Power of the Kaliningrad Region

(Passed by the Kaliningrad regional Duma of the third convocation June 27, 2002)

The purposes of this Law are safeguarding of the openness of activities of the bodies of state power of the Kaliningrad region, and of information mechanisms of prevention and elimination of factors contributing to abuse of power by the bodies of state power and officials thereof in the Kaliningrad region.

1. This Law regulates relations arising while disclosing information by the bodies of state power of the Kaliningrad region.

2. The responsibilities related to disclosing information pursuant to the provisions of this Law shall be assigned to the bodies of state power directly elected by the people of the Kaliningrad region, and also the bodies of state power formed by the highest representative and executive bodies of state power of the Kaliningrad Region.

3. Other bodies of state power, and enterprises, institutions, public unions, the mass media situated in the Kaliningrad region, shall disclose information on their activities pursuant to the laws of the Russian Federation. The entities and organizations funded completely or in part from the budget of the Kaliningrad Region shall have no power to limit the access to information about the procedure of spending appropriate budget funds.

1. The information on activities of the bodies of state power of the Kaliningrad Region shall be open and widely accessible by public.

2. Any limitation of the access to information shall be an exception of the rule of openness of the information and must be reasoned.

1. Information classified as the state secret, and confidential information shall be considered as the information of restricted access, pursuant to the laws of the Russian Federation.

2. Pursuant to the laws of the Russian Federation, the following information can not be classified as information of restricted access:

3. Classification of the information as the state secret shall be carried out pursuant to the Law of the Russian Federation «Of State Secret».

4. Classification of the information as confidential shall be carried out pursuant to the laws of the Russian Federation.

5. The documents and other materials containing data, access to which must be limited pursuant to the laws of the Russian Federation, shall be disclosed in the part which does not contain such data.

6. A decision to deny access to the information shall be reasoned. The denial to grant the access to the information in any of the forms established by this Law, shall refer to the grounds to deny access to the information, shall have references to the appropriate rules of the laws of the Russian Federation, date of taking the decision, surname and position of the person who took the decision, and also an advice of the procedure to appeal against the decision on refusal. It can not be denied to get familiarized with the decision, which became the ground for limitation of one’s access to the information.

1. The main ways of disclosing information to the public shall be:

а) Publication of the official information in mass media;

б) Securing direct access to the documents and other materials of the bodies of state power;

в) Securing public access to the sessions of government bodies;

г) Disclosing documents and other materials to the interested persons on the basis of their request.

2. The bodies of state power of the Kaliningrad Region shall have the power to use any other means not prohibited by the laws of the Russian Federation to inform the public of their activities.

1. Official information shall be disclosed to the public by the means of its publication in mass media. Additional ways of publications of official information can be stipulated.

2. The bodies of state power of the Kaliningrad Region shall publish official information in the mass media, established by them, enter into the contracts to publish legal normative and other official information with other mass media.

3. Disclosure of official information shall be carried out by way of publishing:

normative legal acts related to the rights and freedoms of citizens;

information on the main current decisions of government bodies and official events;

annual reports of the bodies of state power on the results of their works;

other information materials.

Legal acts of the bodies of state power of the Kaliningrad Region subject to official publication pursuant to the law shall be published in mass media with observance of established procedure and time-limits of the publication.

1. The bodies of state power of the Kaliningrad Region grant for publication in mass media official information concerning:

2. The bodies of state power of the Kaliningrad Region have the right to bring to public notice any other information on the current decisions and official events with the use of the resources of printed, audiovisual mass media and other ways of mass keeping the public informed.

1. For familiarization of citizens, living in the Kaliningrad region, with the results of the work of the bodies of state power of the Region by way of the procedure established by the laws of the region, the preparation and publication in mass media of annual messages (message of the head of the administration (governor) of the Kaliningrad Region to the people of the Kaliningrad region, message of the head of the administration (governor) of the Kaliningrad Region to the Kaliningrad regional Duma, and also Budget message) shall be provided.

2. Annual messages shall reflect the dynamics of the changes taken place for the reporting period in socio-political, economic and cultural spheres, namely: the basic statistical indexes on such matters, as budget expenditures, sources and sizes of tax funds in the regional budget and local budgets, volume of production and consumption in separate market sectors, volume of domestic and external investments, crime combat, public health services, migration of the population, ecology of the region, and also other major areas of activity.

3. Representative and executive bodies of the state power, as well as their structural divisions shall have the right to prepare and publish separate reports on their activities for the reporting period.

1. The bodies of state power of the Kaliningrad Region shall publish annually in mass media summary information materials about the structure of the government bodies and the procedure of their work in the Kaliningrad area respectively. Summary information materials shall contain the detailed description of the structure of the bodies of state power of the Kaliningrad region, including their powers and subject-matter jurisdiction, and also surname of the employees, occupying the leading positions, their office phone numbers, addresses, schedule of work with the public.

2. The bodies of state power shall fund publishing of official information materials in the form of the public reference books. Apart from the information referred to in Paragraph 1 of this Article, the official reference publications shall contain the data about the sphere of activities, names and addresses of the other state bodies, including federal bodies, located in the Kaliningrad region, and also public unions, mass media, legal advice offices, notaries public, libraries, educational institutions, municipal services and other organizations, the purpose of activity of which shall the protection of the rights and legitimate interests of the citizens, and also rendering services. Time-term, on expiration of which the official reference publication shall be reissued, shall calculated proceeding from the necessity to maintain the information containing therein updated. Number of copies of the reference books shall be determined on the basis of quantity of copies distributed during the preceding period. The reference books shall be accessible for purchase at the stations of retail sail of printed mass media.

1. The bodies of state power of the Kaliningrad Region shall establish rules of accreditation of the journalists of mass media permitting to ensure the maximum openness of the activities of governmental bodies for a public debate in mass media.

2. The press services of governmental bodies, and officials, responsible for information work with the public, may, upon their own initiative, supply editorial offices of mass media with the data and materials about activities and decisions of the bodies of state power of the Kaliningrad region.

3. Governmental bodies shall provide for measures of encouraging civil servants, actively appearing in mass media with the addresses, presentations and official explanations of the viewpoint of the bodies of state power on essential aspects of their activities.

Direct access to the documents and materials of the bodies of state power of the Kaliningrad Region shall be provided by the means of:

1. The bodies of state power obliged pursuant to this Law to disclose information, shall form accessible depositories of the official information.

2. Access to depositories of the official information of governmental bodies must be ensured by direct personal familiarization of citizens with them in the location of the appropriate body of state power.

3. Governmental bodies, except for cases established by this Law, shall be obliged to place into the depositories of the official information of the bodies of state power and to provide access to the following documents and materials:

4. Legal acts, other documents and materials shall be placed in the depositories of the official information and become accessible to familiarization not later than one week from the date of their signing, or the signing of the acts, in connection with which appropriate documents and materials were considered.

5. For maintenance of integrity of confidential data, an expert examination shall be carried out to ascertain sections of documents and other materials, access to which must be restricted. The sections of documents and other materials, which do not contain confidential data, shall be prepared for familiarization and become accessible not later than one week from the date of signing of the appropriate document. The surname and position of the expert shall be indicated in the document or material prepared for familiarization of the public.

6. filings with documents and materials for familiarization and filings with control copies of the documents and materials shall be made to provide access to the documents and materials in an appropriate governmental body. The documents and materials in a filing shall be placed in the chronological order. Not less than once a month, the inventory of the documents and materials, components of a filing for familiarization, shall be made. As a matter of convenience of search for necessary documents, the inventory shall be placed in the filings. The data of the inventories of filings of the documents and materials can be integrated into catalogs.

7. The measures of safety shall be taken concerning the documents and materials comprising the filings. The access of a citizen to filings for familiarization may be conditioned by the requirement of producing passport or other individual data. In such case a record shall be made by a person in charge of safety of the documents and materials comprising the filings for familiarization. The filings with control copies of the documents and materials shall be stored in conditions preventing arbitrary access of employees to them.

8. special facilities with conditions suitable for work of interested citizens with filings to make excerpts from the documents and materials shall be arranged. Citizens shall have the right to make copies of the documents and materials placed in the filings for familiarization.

1. Pursuant to the laws of the Russian Federation and this Law, mass media shall send copies of each issue of the newspapers to the appropriate libraries located in the Kaliningrad region.

2. The bodies of state power shall send official reports, information materials and official reference works to the libraries. Also, governmental bodies obliged, pursuant to this Law, to provide access to information, may send other documents and materials, which are at their disposal, to the libraries.

3. On the basis of the documents and materials received, the publicly accessible depositories of the official information shall be formed in the libraries of the Kaliningrad region.

1. The bodies of state power of the Kaliningrad Region appropriate from the budget and attract additional resources for development and support of the centralized automated information system of the official information of the Kaliningrad Region integrating databases of the official information of the bodies of state power.

2. The system of the official information shall include databases with a full list and texts of the normative acts which are in effect in the Kaliningrad Region. The bodies of state power shall organize access to electronic versions of the documents and materials referred to in Paragraph 3 of Article 13.

3. The system of the official information shall be accessible to the users of global digital networks. The free of charge familiarization and free of charge electronic copying of the documents and materials kept in a centralized automated informational system of the official information of the Kaliningrad Region shall be provided. The responsibility for authenticity of electronic versions of the documents and other official information, included into the centralized informational system of the official information, shall be borne by the bodies of state power.

4. The bodies of state power may engage specialized organizations on the contractual basis in the execution of the inquiries to disclose information on the basis of usage of databases. The responsibility for accuracy, comprehensive nature of the information provided by a specialized organization and the fulfillment of other requirements of this Law shall be borne by a responsible official of the appropriate governmental body. In case the specialized organization does not have requested documents and materials, which shall be disclosed pursuant to this Law, disclosure of the requested information shall be carried out by the responsible official of the body of state power.

1. Sessions of the representative and executive bodies of state power of the Kaliningrad Region shall be open to the public, except for cases envisaged by the laws of the Russian Federation and the Kaliningrad region.

2. The openness of the sessions shall be guaranteed by a possibility of attendance of the interested citizens, who filed the application forms to attend the appropriate sessions.

1. The representative and the highest executive bodies of state power of the Kaliningrad Region shall publish, on a monthly basis, in mass media the schedule of sessions with the indication of the agenda of the session, and the date, time and place of its commencement.

2. The bodies of state power of the Kaliningrad Region obliged, pursuant to this Law, to disclose information shall set in a place of their location an information board, on which not later than a week prior to the day of session, the information on its agenda, time, and also on the open or closed regime of its conducting shall be placed. In case of conducting the session in a closed regime, the decision, which became a ground for restricting access of the public to the session, shall be placed on the information board.

1. Each governmental body obliged to disclose information shall conduct a record of those wishing to be present at the appropriate session to organize properly the attendance of the sessions by interested citizens. A record of the information about the visitor shall the ground for an access to the session. The record shall include a surname, name and patronymic, year of birth, place of work and position of the person wishing to be present at the session. Producing of other data shall not be mandatory for the citizen.

2. The seats for visitors shall be equipped in a hall where the sessions are conducted. The seating capacity for the visitors shall be calculated on the basis of the quantity recorded, but the total number of seats shall be no less than five during the sessions of the executive bodies of state power and local self-government and no less than ten during the sessions of the representative bodies of state power and local self-government. In case of exhaustion of a quantitative limit of the visitors and non-attendance of some of them, firstly, citizens whose rights and freedoms may be directly affected by the decision rendered during the session secondly, citizens who did not attend the sessions of the concerned governmental body before or who were not present longer than other persons signed up for attendance, and, thirdly, those who signed up for attendance before the rest of visitors, shall have the priority in the attendance of the sessions.

3. The governmental bodies may organize additional access to the sessions by means of direct broadcasting to TV sets placed in other premises, located in the seat of the appropriate governmental body.

1. The rules of conduct of the visitors present during the sessions, shall be stipulated in the Rules of the appropriate governmental body. In case of a violation of the established rules of presence during the session, the chairman shall give notice of a violation to the infringer, and shall order him out of the session hall upon repeated violation.

2. The visitors, present during the session, may take notes, and, with prior permission of the chairman, take pictures, and conduct audio or video recording.

1. During every session of a governmental body obliged pursuant to this Law to disclose information, an official record of the session shall be executed. The official record of the session shall be signed by the appropriate official upon the close of the session.

2. The official record of the session shall necessarily reflect the following information:

3. Other data may also be included into the official record of the session under the decision of the members of the appropriate governmental body. The members, present during the session of a governmental body, have the right to insist on putting into the official record some additional data on the essence of the issues examined, or on the procedure of c the session. The decision on including such data into the official record of the session shall taken by the chairman.

4. In addition to the official records, the governmental bodies shall have the right to conduct a short-hand record, and also TV, video or audio recording of the session.

1. Requests for information may be addressed to the bodies of state power in the following forms:

2. As a general rule, a reply to the request shall be carried out in the same form, in which the request was addressed.

1. In case of a personal oral application of an interested person for obtaining the information or an application made by phone, the information requested shall disclosed in the oral form, if the interested person does object to it.

2. In case the oral answer to the request is not exhaustive by nature from the point of view of the citizen, the procedure of sending requests in other forms and also other ways of obtaining the information pursuant to rules of this Law shall be explained to him.

3. In the oral form, the bodies of state power shall provide brief references precluding the necessity of sending written application on disclosing the information. The persons responsible for disclosing the information shall not be obliged to consult the citizens orally on the issues comprising the subject-matter of the request.

1. The bodies of state power shall be obliged to disclose documents and materials listed in Paragraph 3 of Article 13 pursuant to the written requests of the interested persons located in the Kaliningrad region.

2. The bodies of state power shall have the power to disclose other information in their custody upon a request of the interested persons.

1. The request to disclose information shall be drawn up by the person interested in obtaining the reply. The text of the request shall not exceed one standard typewritten page.

2. The request shall necessarily indicate:

3. The requirement of including some other data, except for the items listed in Paragraph 2 of this Article, into the request shall not be binding on the person requesting the information. The person, forwarding the request, shall not be obliged to give reasons for the request. The person requesting the information, has the right to include into the request contact phone number, and also other information, which in his opinion, can help to execute the request.

4. The bodies of state power shall have the right to design standard forms of the requests to disclose information. The availability of such forms shall be provided in the locations of the bodies of state power and local self-government and also in post and telegraph offices of the Kaliningrad Region. Explanation of the procedure of filling out the form, and the terms, procedure of obtaining and paying fee for disclosing the information may be contained on the back side of the form of the request to disclose information.

5. When formulating the subject-matter of the request, direct indication of all properties of the necessary documents or materials shall not be required. The person responsible for the preparation of the answer has the right to clarify the subject-matter of the request under his/her own initiative using the contact phone number indicated in the request to disclose information.

6. The request to disclose information can be sent by the citizen by mail, or personally handed over to the appropriate governmental body.

1. Each request to disclose information, received by the body of state power in writing, shall be registered with the indication of the date of receiving the request, data about the person, who sent the request, brief formulation of the subject-matter of the request, surname and position of the person in charge for the preparation of the answer, reasons for denial to disclose information, if any, the rate of fee for the preparation of the answer to the request if such fee is required, data about readdressing the request to the other governmental body, the date of sending the answer to the person who drew up the request, and also other data reflecting main stages of the preparation of the answer to the request.

2. The request to obtain information, after registration, shall be forwarded to the person responsible for the preparation of the answer. That person performs search of necessary documents and materials, their copying and putting together a complete set of documents for the answer.

3. The reply to the written request to disclose information must be of exhaustive character eliminating necessity of the repeated request of the interested person on the same subject-matter. The executor of the request shall not be obliged to consult the person interested in getting information on the procedure of usage of the documents and materials requested.

4. The reply to the request shall contain:

1. In case the requested documents and materials are not in custody of the bodies of state power do not dispose, and the bodies of state power are not obliged to have them in their custody pursuant to this Law, the appropriate reference information prepared under the rules set in sub-Paragraph «а» of Paragraph 4 of Article 25, and also the free of charge supplement referred to in sub-Paragraph «в» of Paragraph 4 of Article 25 of this Law shall be included to the reply to the request.

2. The provisions of Paragraph 1 of this Article shall not apply to cases, when the other body of state power disclosing information on the basis of this Law is obliged to have custody of requested documents and materials. In this case the request of the interested person shall be readdressed to the appropriate body of state power, which shall be obliged to reply to the request. If the contact phone number or other data about communication facility is indicated in the request, the executor of the request informs the person requesting the information about the readdressing of his/her request.

3. If the documents and materials requested have been published in mass media, the executor of the request shall have the right to refer to the appropriate mass media in his reply. While referring in this manner, the reply to the request, apart from the mandatory documents disclosed pursuant to sub-Paragraphs «а» and «в» of Paragraph 4 of Article 25 of this Law, properties of the appropriate issue of mass media shall necessarily be indicated.

1. The preparation of the replies to the requests of the citizens shall be performed by the bodies of state power free of charge, except for cases set by Paragraph 3 of this Article.

2. The person sending written request to disclose information pays in cash on delivery for the mail services connected with the delivery of the reply to the request.

3. For the requests to disclose information, which call for copying documents and materials or their parts in the amount more than 10 pages, there shall be a fee for appropriate copy services. The price-list of the costs of copying services shall be approved by the leadership of the bodies of state power and shall not exceed their prime cost.

4. The bodies of state power shall have the power to wave disclosure fees for persons from socially unprotected categories of the public (the invalids, pensioners, officially recognized unemployed persons).

1. The preparation of the reply to the request shall be performed within two weeks.

2. The calculation of time limits for answering the request starts from the moment of receiving the request by the appropriate body of state power and ends at the moment of transfer of the answer to the request to the post office by the appropriate governmental body.

3. If the request requires readdressing to the other body of state power pursuant to the requirements of this Law, the calculation of time limits for answering the request starts from the moment of receiving the request by the governmental body obliged to disclose information pursuant to this Law.

4. If it is impossible to prepare the reply to the request during two-week term, it shall be brought to notice of the person, who sent the request, with the indication of the cause of delay. The time limit for extension can not exceed one week.

1. It can be denied to disclose information upon a request if any of the following grounds exist:

2. A denial to disclose information shall contain the following data:

1. The requests received in the form of text messages, transmitted through the communication channels, shall be granted by means of sending documents and materials referred to in Paragraph 3 of Article 13 in the same form, if it is feasible in view of appropriate technological capacities of a governmental body.

2. In case the request was received via E-Mail, the reply to the request shall be sent to the return E-Mail address of the person requesting the information. If the documents requested do not exist in the electronic version, the procedure of obtaining the information requested in other forms and other ways of obtaining the information pursuant to the provisions of this Law shall be indicated in the reply. The files with the requested documents, or concrete links to the electronic versions of the documents and materials, accessible in global networks, can be attached to the reply to the request if governmental bodies bear responsibility for the accuracy of those documents.

3. If the request to disclose information shall received by fax, the answer to it can also be sent by fax, if this shall not precluded by the volume of the documents and materials necessary for granting the request. Otherwise the procedure of obtaining the information under the request in other forms and other ways of obtaining the information pursuant to the provisions of this Law shall be indicated in the reply.

4. The registration and preparation of the replies to the requests received via E-Mail or by fax, shall be performed by way of procedure provided for written requests.

1. Person responsible for disclosing information for the public prepares annual report on the results of the work on disclosing information for the accounted period to the chief of the appropriate body of state power.

2. Each citizen has the right to get acquainted with the report by way of procedure provided for the familiarization with the records of the sessions of the bodies of state power.

1. The bodies of state power shall create divisions in their structures and assign responsible persons arrange for disclosure of information of bodies of state power to the people of the Kaliningrad region.

2. The bodies of state power shall arrange that citizens have an opportunity to obtaining by phone brief charge-free information concerning the procedure of implementation of the provisions of this Law, including the clarification of the subject-matter of the request to disclose information, working hours of the officials of the bodies of state power and local self-government, the procedure of familiarization with the depositories of the official information of governmental bodies.

1. The bodies of state power with the help of mass media shall carry out explanatory activities among the people of the Kaliningrad Region on the procedure of using the possibilities to obtain information afforded by this Law.

2. The reports on the results of fulfillment of the requirements of this Law, prepared by the appropriate bodies of state power, shall be annually published in mass media.

1. A denial by the person in charge of disclosing information may be appealed against to a higher official.

2. Actions and decisions of the responsible person in violation of the requirements of this Law, may be complained against to the Commissioner on Human Rights in the Kaliningrad region.

3. A denial to disclose information maybe appealed against to the court pursuant to the laws of the Russian Federation.

1. Persons guilty of non-fulfillment or inadequate fulfillment of the obligations to disclose information, shall be prosecuted in criminal, administrative or civil proceedings pursuant to the laws of the Russian Federation.

2. Non-fulfillment or inadequate fulfillment of the obligations of the responsible persons for the organization and implementation of direct disclosing of information shall ensue imposition of disciplinary or material responsibility by the bodies of state power pursuant to the laws of the Russian Federation.

1. This is to recommend to the institutions of local self-government to take into account the provisions of this Law in their regulations, as well as in charters of municipal entities.

2. This Law shall enter into legal force from the date of its official publication.

3. The Rules of Procedure and other legal acts of the bodies of state power of the Kaliningrad Region must be brought in conformity with this Law within one month.

The Head of the Administration

(Governor) of the Kaliningrad Region

V.G. Egorov

City of Kaliningrad

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