Six local councils in Khmelnytsky region found guilty for failure to publish information

The courts found guilty six local councils in the Khmelnytsky region, for failure to publish the public information they disposed on the website of the Unified State Public Data Web Portal; qs it was reported by Suspilne with reference to the regional representative of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Commissioner for Human Rights in Khmelnytsky region Oksana Kizayeva.

According to Oksana Kizyaeva, officials of the Starokostiantynivka City Council, Rozsoshanska, Lisovohrynivetska, Sharovechkivska village councils of the Khmelnytsky district, Solobkovets village council of the Yarmolynets district and Dunayevets village council have been acknowledged by judge as infringers of the right to information.

“Based on the monitoring of the Unified State Web Portal of Public Data, I drew up six reports on administrative offenses under Article 212-3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (violation of the right to information and the right to appeal) and sent them to court. Subsequently, we received six court rulings. Those responsible for the publication of public data sets from these local councils were found guilty of an administrative offense. Five officials were fined 425 hryvnias and a court fee of about 400 hryvnias was levied. One official from the Starokostiantyniv City Council was also found guilty, but discharged from liability, ” Oksana Kizayeva said. 

She also added that the court limited itself to an oral remark, as at the time of the trial the violations had been eliminated, in particular, the public data sets had been published on the Unified State Web Portal of Public Data.

In addition, Kizayeva reminded that under the Law "On Access to Public Information", data disposers are obliged to publish decisions, orders, financial reports, master plans of settlements and other information specified in the law, which should be publicly available on the official websites of local councils and on the Unified State Web Portal of Public Data. Failure to comply with this law is an administrative violation and entails imposition of penalty on those responsible for the disclosure of public information.