Which measure has the Commissioner undertaken in order to enforce article 28, paragraph 2 of the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance, that the execution of the decisions and conclusions of the Commissioner, in case of a need, is ensured by the Government of the Republic of Serbia, and what are the answers of the Government of Serbia and other public administration bodies in that regard? (August 2006)
The answer is contained in the letter sent to the applicant, no. 06-00-57/2006-03 of 25.08.2006, which says:
"In order to remove the obstacles in the enforcement of the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance ("Official Herald of the RS," no. 120/04), the Commissioner has several times during the year pointed publicly, through media and newspapers, at the problem of the execution of his decisions which should, in case of a need, according to the law, be ensured by the Government of Serbia.
Besides, by using the authorities from article 35, item 2 of the Law, in March, 2006, the Commissioner formally submitted a letter to the Government of the Republic of Serbia, the Secretary General, Mr. Mihajlov, initiating that the Government should establish the mechanisms for ensuring the execution of the decisions of the Commissioner, with a concrete proposal for the realisation of that (Enclosure: a copy of the letter no. 021-01-8/2006-03 of 13.03.2006).
In the absence of a reply to this initiative, and after being unofficially informed that this question had been considered at one of the sessions of the Administrative Committee of the Government of Serbia, in June of this year, the Commissioner asked from the Secretary General of the Government the information on what the Committee has decided in connection with this, that is, a copy of the minutes from the session and of the conclusion of the Administrative Committee (Enclosure: a copy of the letter 021-01-8/2-2006-03 of 23.06.2006)
Instead of the copies of the requested documents, on 19.07.2006, the Commissioner received a letter from the president of the Administrative Committee of the Government of Serbia with information that the Administrative Commission, on its session of 18.05.2006, considered the initiative of the Commissioner and "determined that the stated tasks are not in its scope of work established by article 29 of the Rules of Procedure of the Government and that, bearing in mind the tasks performed by this commission, its scope of work should not be expanded in those terms (Enclosure: a copy of the letter 14 no. 021-04014/2006 of 12.07.2006).
Since there was no the answer of the Secretary General of the Government to the previous initiative, in August the Commissioner repeated the initiative for amending the Rules of Procedure of the Government and establishing the mechanisms for carrying out the obligations which the Government has pursuant to art. 28, para. 2, of the Law on Free Access to Information of Public. At the same time, as it had been done in the June letter, the Commissioner pointed out that the problem of the execution of his decisions keeps becoming more acute, with adverse consequences on the enforcement of the Law.( Enclosure: letter 021-01-8/3--/2006-03 of 02.08.2006)
On the occasion of the realisation of the Plan for the implementation of the European Partnership priorities, the Commissioner also pointed to the European Union Integration Office of the Government of Serbia, in February and June of this year, at the administrative hurdles in the enforcement of the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance, including the problem of the decision-execution (Enclosure: letter no. 337-00-1/2006-01 of 27.02.2006, and letter no. 337-00-1/2-2006-01 of 15.06.2006).
In the annual Report on the enforcement of the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance submitted to the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia on 14.03.2006, the Commissioner also pointed at the same problem and the need of activating the mechanism for its resolving. The Report may be found at the site of the Commissioner, on address: www.poverenik.org.yu, in the folder "Reports." The Report was unanimously adopted at the session of the Culture and Information Committee of the National Assembly of 24.03.2006."
