JAT sues Sabic for Airbus
ExpiredJAT SUES SABIC FOR AIRBUS
Serbian airline company JAT keeps secret the controversial agreement on the purchase of aircrafts from the French. Claiming that it is a business secret, Manager Nebojsa Starcevic refused to reveal the conditions under which JAT is to buy eight Airbus aircrafts even to the Commissioner for the Information of Public Importance.
BELGRADE - Making Serbia a legal state in which the law and decisions of public authorities will be respected without exceptions and in which citizens will be sure that bureaucracy cannot stand in the way of exercising their rights was the main pillar of the Prime Minister Kostunica's mandate. In addition to adopting the Constitution, the Government made another major step and adopted the concept according to which the power comes from the people and therefore the people has the right to control the power, which resulted in passing the Free Access to the Information of Public Importance Act and appointing the Information Commissioner, Rodoljub Sabic. However, although by institutionalizing this right the government showed its commitment to bring the democracy and transparency it advocates in its current pre-election campaign “in style”, in practice it seems that civil servants are free to disobey the law as they please. The latest example is the refusal of JAT Airways to oblige the daily Glas and make public the contract with the European manufacturer of Airbus aircrafts signed in 1998 during Milosevic's regime, in spite of the legally binding resolution of the Information Commissioner. Considering that many high officials claim that this contract is detrimental to Serbia and that JAT's Manager Nebojsa Starcevic denied the claims of the Minister for Capital Investment Velimir Ilic that according to the contract JAT cannot buy aircrafts made by any other manufacturer but Airbus, Glas has requested a copy of this document in order to enable the public to find out the truth about its content eight years after its signing. However, JAT, claiming that the contract is a business secret, refused to submit its copy, which it was consequently obliged to do as per resolution of Commissioner Sabic. Although the three-day deadline for the submission of the document expired a few days ago, Glas did not get a reply. Instead, JAT's management decided to send, as they say, the “reply to the resolution”, in which they asked Sabic to pass an interim measure which would postpone the execution of the resolution. JAT did not want to reveal on what grounds they asked for the postponement and whether they intend to start the proceedings before the Serbian Supreme Court, while Starcevic was not available for comment. If we ignore the fact that the Commissioner is not legally authorized to pass interim measures, which the national airline company should know, there is no denying that JAT refused, of its own accord, to carry out the order of a national regulatory body, showing again how much the law is respected in Serbia. Is such obstinacy a result of the conviction of JAT's management that the government of Vojislav Kostunica will not obey the law and force them to act upon the Commissioner's resolution or is it an act of defiance to Minister Ilic, who advised the reporter of Glas to request the document from JAT is now irrelevant. It is interesting though that in its reply to the complaint of Glas, JAT also mentioned that its fleet is financed by JAT alone, disputing the right of tax payers to know the details of the contract. Let us remind the readers that JAT has, in many of its public appearances, reiterated that it does not have the funds to finance the contract with Airbus, which makes the claims of JAT's reply to the complaint untrue. JAT finished last year with a huge loss a debt of around 200 million Euros. National airliner also referred to French legislation and the damage to the reputation of Airbus if the contract was made public, and claimed that Glas has abused the right to the information by requesting a several thousand pages long contract.
Unacceptable accusations
Information Commissioner Rodoljub Sabic says that some important sections of the contract have been published before.
- However, this does not mean that the contract does not contain the information which is not of public interest, or that there is no information that should remain secret. JAT has done something unbelievable by denying the legal right of the Commissioner to view the contract in the process of deliberation and conditioning it with the consent of the foreign partner. It is unacceptable that a foreign company should have any impact on the application of Serbian laws and at the time I was, because of that and a number of other reasons, sure that I had to pass the resolution I passed. It was after my resolution that the Manager of JAT requested the postponement of the execution of my order because JAT had brought charges before the Supreme Court of Serbia. The Commissioner is not authorized to do that, which is why I forwarded JAT's request to the Government, says Sabic, adding that the stand of this court has so far been that the lawsuits of public utilities against the Commissioner's resolutions are unacceptable.
