ZAGREB, May 10 (Hina) - Only 16 percent out of a total of 556 cities, towns and municipalities in Croatia satisfy criteria of transparency, openness and responsibility in their treatment of residents and other groups concerned, and the city of Rijeka has earned the highest mark, 8.8 with the top mark being 10, according to findings of a survey conducted in March and April.

The survey on the responsible and transparent local authorities was carried out by two civil society organisations - GONG and Udruga gradova (The Cities' Association) with the financial support by the European Commission.

The average mark for transparency was 3.8 percent on a scale from 0 to 10 points. As much as 54 percent of units of local authorities received marks below the average one, GONG representative Dragan Bagic said presenting the findings of the survey last Thursday.

Marks higher than 5 have been given to 65 cities and towns and 27 municipalities. Some of those on the top of the list following Rijeka are Cakovec (7.7), Karlovac, Osijek and Crikvenica (7.6), Viskovo (7.5), Zagreb, Sisak (7.4), Opatija (7.3), Pozega, Virovitica (7.2), Pula, Ozalj (7.1) etc.

As many as 434 cities, towns or municipalities are non-transparent or partly transparent, making up 84 percent of units of local authorities covered by the survey.

Criteria for assessing transparency are the openness of local councils' sessions and their decisions, internal organisation, cooperation with civil society organisations and the implementation of the law on the right to access to information.

According to the survey, 23 municipalities and two towns on the bottom of the list do not enable insight into their rule books and statuses.

Many of those lowest-graded municipalities and towns are in Dalmatia: Bibinje and Podgora (0.3), Seget (0,4), Podstrana (0,5), Pucisca (0,8), Kula Norinska (0,9), Cista Provo and Solta (1,1) and Rasinja (1.1) in northern Croatia.