The Commissioner for the Information of Public Importance maintains that acting upon the recommendations from the recently published report of the experts of GRECO (Anti-corruption initiative of the SE group of states for the fight against corruption) may give a significant contribution to the fight against corruption. The Commissioner is of the opinion that it is also very good that the recommendations stress the anti-corruption potential of the Law on Free Access to Information and that they require a training of civil servants dedicated to the rights of citizens stipulated by this law, as well as informing wider public on the contents of this law.      

On that occasion, Commissioner Rodoljub Sabic made the following statement:

“It is very important that as a state we take the recommendations seriously and responsibly, and to enforce them within the given deadline.  That deadline is the end of 2007 and we mustn't deceive ourselves that we have plenty of time at our disposal and that we may repeat mistakes.  It is also necessary to critically access the oversights we have made so far.  Because we could, even without the recommendations from GRECO, do a lot in this field.

As the Commissioner for the Information I have pointed out several times so far that we cannot be content with the level of capability of the staff for the enforcement of the Law on Free Access to Information.  It was at the beginning of the year that I proposed to the competent Ministry for Public Administration and Local Self-Government that these issues be included in the curriculum programme for sitting the professional exam of the employees, unfortunately without any effect.

Is it really necessary that the GRECO experts warn us about the need for training our staff for the enforcement of the Law on Free Access to Information, when this is expressly stipulated as an obligation by article 42 of the law? However, even with an explicit legal obligation, other than taking part in the programmes organised by the Office of the Commissioner for the Information in cooperation with the civil sector and the OSCE Mission in our country, there is a very small number of state bodies which have undertaken something in this sphere.

Acting upon the recommendations from GRECO, within the timeframes stipulated for that, requires much greater involvement of all those responsible, and certainly sanctions in case of not meeting the obligations.”