The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, Rodoljub Sabic says that it is good that, according to the Commissioner’s order, information about the refinery in Smederevo was made available to the public, but it’s not good that he had to interfere at all, especially the fact that exclusion of the public was contracted under the agreement between local authorities and foreign partner.
The Commissioner, bearing in mind that this is not an isolated case, warns that commercial agreements between the authorities and various local and foreign partners which exclude the right of the public, are contrary to the Constitution and the law and that are harmful from the aspect of anticorruption and for the reputation of the authorities.
In this regard, the Commissioner Rodoljub Sabic emphasized the following:
"It is absolutely unacceptable that commercial contracts exclude the right of the public and the citizens to know under what conditions public money and property are managed. The right of the public to know, everyone's right to access government –held information, is guaranteed by the Constitution and exercised under the conditions specified by the law and may not be suspended by the provisions of commercial contracts. Obligatory legal, contractual provisions may not suspend the constitutional and legal provisions of public imperative character. Such tretament is contrary to the Constitution and the law and such provisions are null and void.
Contracts with foreign and other investors can guarantee discretion in relation to some information that they are entitled to, such are for example information about the specific technological, technical, organizational and other similar solutions, ways they close financing structures and similar, but contracts in any case may not limit the right of access to information that is a legitimate subject of public interest.
In this specific case i.e .the refinery in Smederevo, obviously, with the always justified interest in information about the disposal of public resources, was present and no less legitimate interest in information about the state of the environment, and yet there was a problem. That is certainly not good. A general contracting of "confidential" commercial contracts always, with or without the reason, contributes to doubt about the existence of corruption and damages the reputation of the government in general. And contracting of provisions that put the application of our Constitution or laws in dependence on the willingness of foreign partners do not contribute at all to the reputation of any state or self-respect, on the contrary. "
