Source: : Danas
Round table on execution of the decisions of the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance
Belgrade - The Government of Serbia doesn't provide for execution of decisions of the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance, which represents an invitation for breaking the law, and the number of unexecuted decisions of the Commissioner has a constant growth tendency, has been concluded yesterday at the Round Table in Media Center, where representatives of OSCE and the Ministry of Culture have participated, as well as the Commissioner for Information, Mr. Rodoljub Sabic. The Commissioner Sabic pointed out that a problem in application of the Law on Free Access to Information does not represent securing execution of the Commissioner's decision, but also of the decision of the Supreme Court of Serbia, and lack of functioning of the Law implementation mechanisms, "because there is no faith in it" and no political will.Lady-Head of the Media Department in OSCE Mission, Dragana Nikolic Solomon evaluated that the implementation of the Law on Free Access to Information has so far shown both its qualities and flaws. A serious shortcoming is, she points out, the fact that the Government of Serbia fails to provide execution of the Commissioner's decision, and the Ministry of Culture fails to provide implementation supervision.
- The problem is that we don't even have responsibility mechanism in case of Law infringement. In that enactment is quoted that the Government of Serbia, in case of need, is obliged to secure execution of the Trustee's decision, but it is not quoted how - said Sabic. He added that he has started the initiative several times, in order to form and administrative committee or a board in the Government, but his initiatives have been ignored. Sabic says that we currently have 195 Commissioner's decisions that haven't been executed and that since the beginning of application of the Law in 2005, until May this year, 132 decisions haven't been executed, and that lately that number has a constant growth. As he explained, it is necessary to adopt a Law on Confidential Data Classification, because it often happens that certain information are proclaimed state secret, as was the case with the salary of NIS' manager, and that is not a secret, because its publishing can not cause any damage whatsoever.
- In Europe data on managers' salaries in private companies, not just in public ones are published for a long time now - reminded Sabic. He stressed that a secret is determined on an accidental basis and behind that hide abuses, criminal, corruption or lack of results, and the problem is also that the supervision over law implementation has been allocated to the Ministry of Culture, which didn't have elementary prerequisites to do that. In Serbia there are between 10,500 and 12,000 subjects, quotes Sabic, subject to the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance, and the Commissioner has sent to the Ministry of Culture around 1,300 decisions for law infringement. According to his words, only one person works on that job in the Ministry of Culture, because of what cases become outdated.
Deputy Minister of Culture, Dragan Janjic has stressed that his Ministry does not have a mechanism or the right to implement inspection for execution of the Commissioner's decision.
- Unfortunately, not much has been achieved in relocating the supervision from the Ministry of Culture to some other Ministry with a mechanism for Law implementation. Without that, there are no big results. I hope that it shall be done at the beginning of the next year - states Janjic.
