About the Advisory Board on Open Government and Information Management (ACOI)

The Advisory Board on Open Government and Information Management (ACOI) attaches great importance to a democracy in which everyone can participate actively as well as monitor the actions taken by the government. For that to be possible, everyone needs to be able to access the information that the government has. The Advisory Board is committed to being the driving force behind this accessibility of public information.

The Advisory Board’s tasks are laid down in the Open Government Act (Wet open overheid) (information in Dutch). The Advisory Board aims to promote the application of the Open Government Act by providing solicited and unsolicited advice to both the government and the parliament regarding public access to and effective management of government information. Moreover, the Advisory Board provides mediation between government organizations and journalists, researchers and others with a ‘professional interest’ who have submitted a request for the disclosure of public information to the relevant public body.

The Advisory Board carries out its tasks independently, expertly and on the basis of a transparent relationship with society. Hence, the Advisory Board seeks input from all stakeholders: political office holders and government officials, journalists and scholars, interest groups, companies and members of the public.

The Advisory Board has three core tasks:

  1. Advising the government and parliament on the disclosure of government information.
  2. Advising the Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations and the State Secretary for Culture and Media regarding their plans to improve the government’s information management.
  3. Providing mediation initiated by complaints by journalists and researchers regarding the way in which a government body has handled their applications for the disclosure of information under the Open Government Act (Wet open overheid, WOO).


What topics does the Advisory Board advise on?

Open Government Act 

The most important topic for the Advisory Board is the implementation of the Open Government Act (Wet open overheid, Woo), more specifically the way in which government bodies disclose information. What do government organizations publish pro-actively? How do they process requests for the disclosure of public information and documents by journalists, researchers and others? What can be done differently and what improvements can be made? The Advisory Board assesses the current practices and presents recommendations to the government and parliament based on these assessments.


Information management

The Advisory Board advises on information management by government bodies. Public organizations create and receive large numbers of documents, including internal memorandums, reports, letters, emails and website content. When such information is not managed carefully by the relevant government body, it can adversely affect accessibility to relevant documents. Therefore, the Open Government Act prescribes the Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations to collaborate with the State Secretary for Culture and Media as well as with municipalities, provinces and water authorities to develop plans aimed at improving their information management.

Public Records Act (Archiefwet)
The Advisory Board advises on the progress of those plans as described above with due attention to the provisions of Public Records Act (Archiefwet) since it lays down the basic rules of proper information management.


Solicited and unsolicited advice

The Advisory Board can provide advice, both solicited and unsolicited, concerning other acts of parliament and measures, that affect the accessibility of government information.


What does the Advisory Board do for journalists?

Ombuds organisation

The Advisory Board serves as an ombuds organization for journalists. As such it can mediate when journalists have complaints about the way in which government organizations process requests under the Open Government Act (also referred to as WOO applications).

Links

  • The open government act(PDF, 236 kB)

    English version Wet open overheid (Woo)

  • Members of the Advisory Board

    Learn more about our members.


Contact

Send an email to info@acoi.nl or complete the contact form and we will get in touch with you as soon as possible.

We can be reached by phone at +31 (0)70-4266643 between 9:00 and 17:00 Monday to Thursday.

Do you have general questions about the Open Government Act? You can phone 1400 if you have questions about your application for information.