The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance (and Personal Data Protection) said that the part of the Draft Budget relating to the financing of his institution, with all due respect to the need to make savings, was so unrealistically low that it appears that the intention of the backer of that Draft was to punish the institution of the Commissioner for the actions it undertakes. Such budget would make the Commissioner's work much more difficult and it would be impossible for him to assume new duties in connection with the implementation of the Law on Personal Data Protection, which, among other things, certainly puts the prospects of a visa waiver regime on a long stick, possibly even after 2010.

In connection with this, Commissioner Rodoljub Sabic also said the following:

“Being aware of the need for the budget to be restricted, I did not toy with large figures as some did. I projected resources completely rationally, within the limits previously adopted by the Government itself. Indeed, the Commissioner has always been one of the most economical public authorities and managed to save a large part of his budget every year. These savings were largely a side-effect attributable to the permanent lack of premises and, consequently, working with an extremely low number of associates, several times lower than envisaged. We spent little money, but because of the workload we worked more. Even at this moment, there are enough cases for several months' work because of the large inflow of new cases even without any new duties. It is utterly unfair and truly absurd to request of the Commissioner to assume additional, incomparably larger duties without having at his disposal even the most rudimentary conditions, human resources and money.

The Government itself purported in the rationale of the recently adopted Law on Personal Data Protection, which it presented as one of its priorities and the protection of which I should take over as of 1 January, that it required an increase of the Commissioner' s budget for at least additional seventy million dinars. On top of the budget previously needed by the Commissioner, it would amount to at least 115 million dinars. Only a month later, they are talking about 49 millions, which is far lower than a half of the required amount. The earmarked funds are about 60% lower than the projection given by the Commissioner strictly according to the elements the Government itself specified. I am not aware that any other public authority was treated even nearly as rigidly.

Of course, even if the budget is not adjusted, the Commissioner will work on the protection of the freedom of information, only in more difficult conditions. But the scope for contributing to the promotion of publicity and combating abuse and corruption would be reduced considerably for the Commissioner and implementation of the Law on Personal Data Protection would virtually come to a halt. This is why the Government, if it fails to adjust the budget, should openly say to the public that this would delay the fulfillment of the citizen's wishes in connection with the publicity, fight against corruption and in particular protection of privacy and visa waiver regime with the EU.”