Source: ‘'Blic''
Just the other day, an ''interesting'' thing happened to the Commissioner for Information. He threw a glance at his mobile phone's display, noticed a missed call from a news agency and tried to answer it. He was unpleasantly surprised. A voice on the other end of the line advised him that his phone is disconnected due to an unpaid bill. ‘'Experts'' from the Ministry of Finance who pay the Commissioner for Information's bills and are actually masters of his ‘'independent'' budget, haven't paid it. The bill was settled by the Commissioner's personal money and if necessary, will be settled by the Commissioner in the future.
As the Commissioner and his staff, always spend less than allocated means, there was more than enough to settle any obligation. Truth be told, I would like to remind that public body-the Commissioner for Information always saved a significant amount of allocated resources, a half and more every year, as of the day this institution was established. Even in the first quarter of this year.
Is it normal then for the head of the body to find him self in such a burlesque situation, left without necessary resources even for a short while? Not to be advised of the situation? Is it normal for the Commissioner not to be able to pay telecommunicational equipment delivered and installled, which had to be procured in order to prepare the register under the new Law on Personal Data Protection, and that some who have behaved more irrational ''are able '' to pay their bills? It would be good to know how this happens and what are the criteria. What is more important to know is, that in order to make savings, the state can and has to forsake procurement of a great number of goods and services, but those procured have to be timely paid for. By not paying bills nothing is saved, the state and its public bodies' reputation is being smeared, and legitimate and egzistential inerests of those who provided the goods and services are being jeopardised. The state definitely should not be doing neither the former nor latter.
