Source: Politika
Behind the scenes
Ivana Anojcic
In Serbia salary of a manager or of a public company president is a secret. That is completely sufficient reason to change the Law on Free Access to Information and the Information Classification Act. But, those laws have difficulty in reaching MPs of the Serbian Assembly.
Rodoljub Sabic, Commissioner for Information of Public Importance is completely aware that we are already a couple of years late in changing those laws. He is already for years speaking about secret salaries in public companies, as well as about many other data that are without valid reason put away from the eyes of the public.
„I have warned the Parliament about it, but that hasn't resulted in law proposal.
Then civil initiative gathered (a group of nongovernmental organizations from which derived Coalition for Free Access to Information) and formed the expert group that has written those two laws, which have been supported by the signatures of 72,000 citizens of Serbia. In the end in some gray zone between the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Assembly those citizens' signatures vanished", says Rodoljub Sabic. Disappearance of 72,000 signatures „on the way" from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the Assembly seems unreal even in Serbia.
Nemanja Nenadic, Program Manager of Transparency Serbia also says that we are very late, because the citizens' initiative has submitted laws in December 2007.
„Besides the Government and MPs, 30,000 citizens can also based on the Law on Referendum and National Initiative submit legal proposal. That means that those enactments should be posted on the Internet presentation of the Parliament, amongst the laws waiting for the procedure, which is not the case. There are also no official explanations why is that so, although the Assembly should have discussed those two laws during the first regular session, which was in this case in the autumn. The Assembly Chairman must pass it to the MPs and to the Government. I don't know if that has been done."
Even in the Coalition for Free Access to Information they are dissatisfied with infringement of the right to start civil legislative initiative in the Assembly of Serbia. They consider that the Assembly has been obliged to discuss their legal proposals for which they have requested an urgent procedure. However, not just that this didn't happen, but they were not even informed about the destiny of their initiative. When everybody has already given up, Assembly Chairlady, Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic stated that those civil initiative enactments shall find themselves on the agenda in springtime. She said that those laws have waited to come to agenda, and that they should pass the procedure until the 1st of March and start of holding regular sessions. The laws, as she explained, can not be discussed during an extraordinary session, because they haven't been delivered in an urgent procedure.
„The very announcement that the laws shall find themselves on the agenda is for respect", says Sabic. „I believe that among the MPs there is a critical mass supporting adoption of these laws, and it is also high time that after several years they should be adopted, because all the transitioning societies take much care of those laws."
Now, the question is what proposals shall find themselves in the Assembly. For the time being, the Government does not have drafts of those laws, but it is known that the Ministry of Justice has compiled a working group including civil sector representatives. If the Government would have its proposal, then it will be adopted in the Assembly, and not the laws proposed by the group of non-governmental organizations gathered in a Coalition for Free Access to Information.
Nenadic says that the Government has formed a working group for Information Classification Act. „Proposal of the citizens' initiative can be changed, amendments can be submitted. The Working Group can also pause its work to see if the MPs shall adopt those proposals. But, it is also possible that those two laws haven't reached the MPs or the Government."
Sabic explains that there still exists a powerful inertia due to fear. „Not only that during the sanctions we have suffered much economically, but we have significantly lagged behind certain standards that are notorious today. Safety culture is in our country still using standards from the first half of the 20th century. Resistance to novelty is still strong."
Nenadic says that these two law proposals are very important, because Serbia has a big number of secrets regulated by couple of hundreds of enactments, and the secrecy is determined based on inadequate criteria and degrees of confidentiality. „If something is hidden, there is an interest to keep the chaotic state of affairs.
And such status also endangers the things that should remain secret. Changes of the Law on Free Access to Information should secure more efficient control and introduce that the inspection supervision in the future should be vested with the Ministry of State Administration and Local Self Government, which already has inspection services instead of the Ministry of Culture. „Changes of this law shall eliminate problems experienced so far, and they shall enable more efficient application. But, those who haven't applied it so far, they don't want it, and they will not want the new improved law", Nenadic remains skeptical.
