The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection said the statements made by the Economy's Minister , Željko Sertić, in the RTV's TV show "Right Angle", broadcasted by several other media, in the part related to problem of denying the public the opportunity to see the Contract on performing management and consulting services in the "Steel plant Smederevo", are arbitrary, incorrect and even insulting, from the point of view of the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Data protection, and of the employees of this institution.

In order to inform the public, the Commissioner, Rodoljub Šabic, commented on only two of several similar statements made during the appearance of the Economy's minister on the aforementioned TV show:

"It is beyond doubt that the following Minister's statement deserves comment.: "In my opinion, we are now discussing the transparency so much that it loses its basic function". "We must know where the transparency has its social importance, and where it does not."

The transparency issue, i.e. the right of free access to information, is not something that can and may depend upon individual opinion of every single Minister. This "issue" was resolved a long time ago by the National Assembly of The Republic of Serbia, which adopted the Law on Free Acces to Information of Public Importance. It is, by the way, one of the rare Serbian Laws which is classified as one of the best among similar Laws in an international, global context.

According to that Law, relevant decisions regarding the right on free access to information of public importance are made by the Commissioner and the court, and not by the Minister; those decisions are binding on him.

"I have no problem to show the Contract to Mr. Šabić so he can see it, because 30 or 40 persons in Serbia have already seen it; however, I don't want this document to be forwarded from his office to Transparency Serbia or to ex-Minister, Mr Saša Radulović, who could misuse the Contract."

The facts show that the Minister "had a problem" at the time when it was important, during the the complaint proceedings. After my associates sent a written request for inspection, and after I sent a personal letter to minister, twice, I warned him that it is a matter of violation of Law, but with no success.

In addition to that, the right of the Commissioner for Information to inspect any document related to the proceeding he is conducting, is undisputed; in the course of almost 11 years of practice, the denying of such right in the "Steel plant" case represents a unique, absolute precedent. This right of the Commissioner is based upon Law, and it cannot depend upon the "good will" of any Minister; further it is not, and it cannot be associated with the fact that the Minister has allowed 30 or 40 persons to see the Contract, based upon unknown criteria.

I will not take into consideration some insinuations on alleged possible intentions of the Serbia Transparency or the ex-Minister, however, I must consider the insinuations about my associates.

According to Law, the Commissioner never gives away or publishes documents, which were the reason why someone has filed a complaint to the Commissioner. The Commissioner only makes decision on complaint, and if the complaint is adopted, he orders the authorities holding such document to submit it to a petitioner.

Thus, within a regular, usual procedure no one ever receives the requested document from the Commissioner, but from the body who received an order from the Commissioner to do so. Therefore, the Ministers statement insinuates the possibility that the Commissioner's associates are submitting the documents, which are subject to proceedings, to someone else, and doing it maliciously.

Such insinuation is insulting and impermissible. In the entire structure of Serbian administration, the Commissioners department represents a subject with probably highest percentage of employees which passed the security check, as stipulated by the Law on confidentiality of data. Independently from that, I am completely shore that the Minister cannot name any example of information "leakage" from the Commissioner's department, although a number of such examples can be found throughout the Serbian administration, and that it is irresponsible to make such insinuations about this department".