Source: Danas
How to make something accessible to the public if it is not accessible to the members of parliament?
An action by the Information Commissioner and its Department which has by combination of circumstances, (un)deservedly attracted huge attention of media, should be ended very soon. It's time the Commissioner makes decisions according to appeals submitted by Administrative Board of the Parliament of the Republic of Serbia, due to some public companies and agencies failure to provide data on payments, i.e. fees of their directors and members of their management boards. Administrative Board has previously asked Serbian Government that is its Ministry of Finance to provide the information. The Board did not receive it and apparently unsatisfied, it turned to the Commissioner for information. Strictly formally, this way of applying to the Commissioner was not entirely legally correct. It would have been more correct to send those applications to addresses of some 60 subjects in question, regarding salaries and fees of the disputed managers. However, the Commissioner considered even a minimum of a proper attitude towards authority of the board of the highest state legislative body, demanded it sent the board's applications to the right addressers with a warning that the Law on free access to public information guarantees a right to access public information to all. The intervention by the Commissioner gave (relative) results. At least three quarters of some 60 subjects have submitted the requested data to the Administrative Board. The Board lodged an appeal to the Commissioner against some ten of those who had not done it. In accordance with the legally determined procedure, the Commissioner forwarded the appeals to those who they had been lodged against, leaving them a deadline to declare about the appeals. Freely taking over the risk to be blamed for prejudged speaking, I will state that it's not at all a problem to assume that these decisions are for the benefit of the right of public knowledge. Only when the companies, or agencies, to which the decisions would apply, act accordingly, that is when, perhaps, Serbian Government, if necessary, temporarily executes the Commissioner decisions, the “struggle” of the Administrative Board would at least be ended.Anyhow, the Law on free access to public information in article no.2 defines public information as follows: “information at disposal of public authority, created in operation or with reference to operation of authority, is contained in a certain document and related to anything that is justifiably in public's interest to be informed of.” Article no.3 says by definition of this law public authority among other things is every “legal person founding or financing on the whole, that is mostly the state, or a state authority as well”, while article no.5 says that ”everyone is entitled to have access to public information…” Consequently, everyone has that right. Everyone means everybody, including Administrative Board. Only that Board - that is operating body of the highest legitimate public authority, comprised of some 20 members of parliament from all the parliamentary parties - should mean even more than just “everyone”. It is absurd indeed that such a body finds itself in need to collect such information based on the Law on free access to public information and to seek its right protection from the Information Commissioner as well. It is all more absurd as the directors and the public companies' and agencies' management is appointed by governing political parties, the same ones the parliament members of which are members of Administrative Board. So, they are political parties that declare Serbian integration in Europe, that is adopting European legal and life standards, as their special credo, as one of the main ideas of their political activity. Based on this specific case it is concluded that such love, i.e. affiliation towards European standards, is only platonic and it does not imply an actual contact with them. The reason for this is that in the context of the European standards it is literally unconceivable question public right to be familiar with the data on salaries and fees of the management in public companies and agencies. Moreover, according to such standards it is perfectly normal that data on salaries in public companies and many private ones are available to the public. In order to picture this it is worthwhile to mention some of the standpoints of the European Community Commission stated in the Recommendation (2004/913/CE), published in the European Union Official Gazette from December 29th 2004. In the section no.2.of the Recommendation, among other things, it is stated that every company rated on the stock market, should announce a declaration on its fee policy, which among other things, means it should also be placed on the company's web site. As for publishing information on individual fees of the “administrators”, that is directors, members of Administrative or Supervisory Board or any other managing body in a company, Section no.3 specifies not only the overall amount of profit and other money returns from contract payments, profit sharing, commission, but also by options given on shares or shares, thence possible special pension benefits, even amounts spent on loans or administrator loans guarantees. Why is this so? I guess the reason is, as it is written in the mentioned Recommendation, “publishing accurate and updated information builds trust and is an excellent method for promoting a wholesome practice of company management”. Well, aren't these two things, just what we desperately need?
