In relation to the Bill determining the maximum number of employees in republic administration, which is to be discussed in the near future, the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, Rodoljub Sabic, estimates that the provisions of article 8 of this law, which stipulate the obligation of public bodies to publish information on the number of employees on the Internet, represent a contribution to the freedom of access to information. However, the Commissioner estimates that the real meaning of these provisions would be achieved only with the addition of the obligation to publish the data on budget resources used for salaries and honorary fees of employees and he therefore appeals to the Government or parliamentary groups to enable this with the necessary amendments.
In relation to this, the Commissioner Rodoljub Sabic, has highlighted that:
‘'The data on the number of employees in government bodies and the data on their budget costs are an absolutely legitimate object of public interest pursuant to the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance, as well. Every public body is obliged to provide such information to citizens or journalists at their request. Unfortunately, there have been many problems regarding this in practice and often the data could be accessed only after the intervention of the Commissioner for Information.
Until now there has been no explicit legal obligation to publish such data proactively, i.e. without a request, and my attempt as the Commissioner for Information to establish such an obligation by publishing the Instruction for Publishing the Information Booklet, yielded partial results. Therefore the decisions suggesting that the Ministry of Finance have the legal obligation of publishing the data on the number of employed and contracted individuals in every public body represent a step forward.
However, I think it is obvious that it can obtain its full and legal meaning only with the addition of the obligation of publishing the data on budget costs for employees.
Only thus the information giving a real and comparable picture on rational operation of certain and all public bodies would be made available to the public. Therefore, from the aspect of improving freedom to access information, the aspect of government administration rationalization and from the aspect of fight against abuses and corruption, it would be very useful if the Government or the MP's widened the scope of article 8 of the Bill with the necessary amendments.''
