Facts, and not unverified statements

Transparency – Serbia (official chapter of Transparency International) informs the public that Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Protection of Personal Data adopted decision that instructs the City Administration to inform us in 5 days deadline whether it has in its possession data related to object from Karađorđeva street no. 48 ("Beogradska zadruga"): „documents that state on who owns and who uses the object, basis for using it, who was investor of renovation in 2014; construction and other necessary permits for renovation work; decisions, permits and contracts related to executing of works in rearranging traffic infrastructure in front of the object as well as documentation related to payment of such service, and if it possesses such documents to deliver it to the applicant“[1].

We remind that we invested complaint on August 13th for expiring statute of limitations for City Administration due to ignoring of our request. Special dimension to denying of information in this case is the fact that city organs, on one side, have not complied with their legal obligation of delivering information to citizens, but have went public on this issue in the context of political debates. In one such argument with its political opponents, Mayor Siniša Mali on 11.8.2014, stated that „there are no secret contracts regarding Belgrade Waterfront project and that contract on donation of 2,7 million of euros for renovation of former „Geozavod“ building is the only existing contract“[2].

Transparency – Serbia emphasizes that accomplishing of often times mentioned provision of transparency in practice implies to above all respecting of legal obligations and publishing of data, as well as necessary minimum, that can't in any case be replaced with unverifiable statements. Accomplishing of this provision through publishing of documents is especially important in the cases of projects that are widely promoted by public institutions using other methods (promotional meetings, commercials, TV shows), as it is the case with „Belgrade Waterfront“ currently.