Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, Rodoljub Sabic has received representatives of Association of Judicial Servants and Collaborators of Serbia regarding the request of the Association to publicize complete information on application of the „Rule Book on Salaries and Other Earnings of the Employees in the Ministry of Finance – Tax Administration“, as well as to eliminate doubts resulting from controversial statements of responsible officials placed to the public, which cause dilemma regarding whether the Rule Book has been applied or not. During directing representatives of the Association to, according to the legally envisaged procedure, before potential complaint to the Commissioner, turn to the Ministry of Finance with adequate request, the Commissioner, Rodoljub Sabic also stated the following:
„Starting from the thing that all potential dilemmas should be eliminated, that this is a legitimate request, I have directed the Association representatives to implement it in legally envisaged procedure, by submitting the request for all relevant information to the authority in charge – the Ministry of Finance. I expect that to yield results even without engagement of the Commissioner for Information, because I think it obvious that this is about absolutely legitimate request. Not only the professional associations and labor unions but the public in general is entitled to have accurate and complete information in this and any other case pertaining to payment of salaries, allowances and all other similar earnings from public funds.
Principle of general accessibility of such information not only derives from the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance, but is also explicitly confirmed by some special laws. I hereby remind that the Law on Determining the Maximum Number of Employees in Republic Administration strictly provides for the data on number of employed and engaged persons, like the data on amount paid for their salaries, allowances and compensations are public, and that the Register on those data shall be kept by the Ministry of Finance and it should be published on its Internet presentation. It is not good, and is in several ways harmful that, despite adoption of this law by the end of last year, its provisions are not implemented, and the interested citizens, media and the others are forced to access those data just after turning to the Commissioner for Information.“
