Is the Commissioner obliged to check the truthfulness of information delivered to him by the body in power after issuing of the Decision?
Answer:
According to the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Interest, the body in power is obliged to deliver the information to the requesting entity, not to the Commissioner. Also in the case when that body fails to act according to the founded request of the person requesting information, and that is ordered by the Commissioner's Decision, the body in power is obliged to act as ordered in the Decision, to deliver the information to the requesting entity, and to inform the Commissioner about its activity according to the Decision.
The Commissioner does not have legal authority to check credibility of documents, that is, truthfulness of facts contained in the document that has been requested. In the process of resolving a complaint, before passing Decision, in order to determine the factual state of things, the Commissioner is authorized to get insight into every information carrier, when that is necessary for passing of the decision, that is, decision on justification of the request.
Lack of action based on the request from the requesting entity, that is, failure to deliver the requested information, has been sanctioned by the Law as an infringement. Starting of the infringement procedure falls to the authority of the Ministry of Culture, to which the Commissioner's Service delivers available data, and that Ministry should as the body authorized by the law to perform monitoring of this Law's implementation, determine during implementation procedure all facts important for starting the infringement procedure, as well as if the requesting entity has received the requested information, as ordered in the Commissioner's Decision.
Execution of the Commissioner's Decisions that are legally binding and executable, when necessary, shall be provided by the Government, so the Commissioner does not have any executive authorities regarding possible complaints about the Decision.
