The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection ordered by a decision to the City Administration of Belgrade to inform organization "Transparency Serbia" within maximum 5 days whether it holds the following documents regarding the building in Karadjordjeva 48 Street ("Belgrade Cooperative" building): documents which show who is the owner and who is the user of the building, the basis for the use of the building and who was the investor for refurbishment of this building in 2014; a construction permit and other licences necessary for works on refurbishment of the building; decisions, licences and contracts in connection with refurbishment works on the road infrastructure in front of the building and documents regarding payments for those works, and to send those documents to the requester if it holds them.

In that regard, Commissioner Rodoljub Sabic also said the following:

"According to the law, in general any information in connection with financing, construction and refurbishment of public buildings is without any doubt information of public importance and regular and legitimate subject of interest of the public. And, of course, in case of a building of exceptional heritage value, an anthological example of Serbian architecture, which is, in addition, to the best of the public's knowledge, also a promotional centre of the Belgrade Waterfront project, which itself attracted much publicity, I would say that this principle is reinforced further.

In this context, I think I should warn about two things.

Firstly, it is beyond belief, indeed unacceptable that the city administration literally ignores the request for information because such action (or rather failure to act) constitutes an infringement identified and punishable by the law.

Secondly, in addition to being fully aware that it is violating the law, i.e. the legitimate right of the public, and that it is committing a punishable infringement, the city administration should also know that in this way it "creates" negative publicity for the Belgrade Waterfront project, which it itself identified as one of the highest priority projects for the city.