DIGITAL TRANSPARENCY IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR – CASE STUDY CZECH REPUBLIC

The subject of the paper is to carry out evaluation of the current information openness of municipalities through the structured observation method, via their web pages. The aim of the paper is to assess the transparency level of municipalities in the Czech Republic. It focuses on the lawful and voluntary publication of in-formation on the websites of randomly selected group of municipalities. The content analysis on the internet was used. The thesis focuses on qualitative and quantitative data acquisition as the most effective combination. The research sample consists of 100 municipalities, which were randomly selected from a set of all municipalities in the Czech Republic with populations ranging between 2,000 to 10,000 inhabitants. The paper’s introductory part defines the basic concepts and obligations, which are laid down to the municipalities by international and especially Czech legislation. It is followed by the analysis of selected municipalities on the Internet, which is divided into municipalities’ management and documents regarding their activities, the office’s communication with its citizens and accessibility of the sites. A synthesis of findings presents the most transparent municipalities and regions. Czech municipalities have been heterogeneous in the analysis of digital transparency. Once the legislation precisely defines the scope and form of mandatory disclosure of information on municipalities’ websites, there is a great deal of improvement and the efforts of municipalities to fulfil this obligation. The degree of disclosure is decreasing with the freedom for municipalities to publish information. The conclusion of the paper is devoted to the overall assessment and recommendations for the given situation in the Czech Republic.