Defending study secrecy on the tax payers’ expense
Transparency – Serbia (official chapter of Transparency International) received Commissioner for Information of Public Importance Decision, that sentenced 20.000 RSD fine to Ministry of Natural Resources, Mining and Spatial Planning because it refused to deliver, in compliance with previous Commissioner’s Decision, Justification Study of the Project of Canal Construction Dunav – Morava - Vardar to all who asked for that document.
By Commissioner’s decision from 4th of April, Ministry received two day’s deadline to pay for the fine, but also to allow public insight to Study. On the contrary, implementation of Commissioner’s Decision will be continued, by sentencing new fine in the amount of 180.000 RSD.
We consider practice of hiding important documents from public, with providing absurd or legally ungrounded explanations, equally intolerable, whereas this is not an isolated case, as well as playing with tax payer’s money, when state organs pay fines instead of proceeding in compliance with Commissioner’s decisions.
Case with Study on construction of canal is one more indicator to insufficient transparency of Government’s work when it comes to market arrangements with foreign partners and construction of infrastructural objects. So far unsuccessfully, TS many times pointed out that this area is one of the most problematic when it comes to anti - corruption, but this claim was never taken into consideration for the final text of Anti-corruption Strategy, and there has been no progress in practice. Secrecy of data was common feature of many cases in past ten years which are now subjected to investigation on abuses. Instead of publicly proclaimed fight against corruption bringing essential changes in this area, documents like memos on solar power plants (signed by previous Government) or agreement between JAT and Etihad, still remain unavailable to public.
To avoid absurd fines for violation of the law being paid from the budget, instead of sentencing authorized managers, it is necessary to adopt amendments to the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance, that were withdrawn from Parliamentary procedure after establishing of the Government in 2012, and haven’t been proposed again so far.
In February, Transparency Serbia submitted preposition to Commissioner for implementing administrative execution, to enable receiving of information that TS asked for in October 2013. At that time Ministry first answered that they can not deliver Study because only copy remains with Minister who was away for a business trip. Then Ministry notified Transparency that Study can not be published because members of the Government were not familiarized with its content. At the beginning of October Study was showed by Minister Milan Bačević 'from his hand' at the press conference. In January, Commissioner adopted decision that dictates Ministry of Mining to deliver Study to requester. Besides Transparency Serbia, document was requested by several journalists and NGOs.
Transparency – Serbia
Belgrade, 9 April 2014
