Source: Blic
Rodoljub Sabic, the Public Information Commissioner
We are still waiting for the epilogue of the havoc caused by the provisions of the item 24.2 of the famous Contract on the Concession for the Highway HorgoS - Pozega and the demand for the information on the contents of the contract. As it is, it is prescribed by the provisions that all information on the construction and maintenance of the highway are to be considered confidential and unaccessible to our public unless the foreign concessionaire approves the opposite.The havoc is still on, despite the fact that the Decision has been brought forth by the Public Information Commissioner in favour of the public. Although being mandatory by the law, not only that the Decision was not carried out, but the charges were pressed to the Supreme Court seeking its annulment.
In all cases having dealt with the charges pressed by the authorities against the decisions made by the Public Information Commissioner, the verdict of the Court was the same - the charges were dismissed having been proclaimed illicit. Thus the havoc could, it seems, be ended in the only true way, in accordance with the right of the public to know. But that is the solution only for this particular problem. What in the future? There will be more and more concessions, and the right to free access to information will not vanish from our legislation.
That is why the right question is - how is it possible to avoid similar havoc in the future?
The true answer certainly is not the irrational confidentiality. We do not have to travel far in order to pick up some useful example. It is suffient to glance over the fence into the neighbouring Croatia, where the audit of the registry of concessions is drawing to its end.
In accordance with the standpoint that the data on concessions must be accessible to the public, all contracts will show up on the Internet. That is the valid answer.
