(Podgorica, 18 February 2013) – Today begins the entry into force of the new Law on Free Access to Information (LFAI). Respecting the recommendations of the European Commission it was necessary to align the existing law with European jurisprudence and established international conventions, but above all with existing Montenegrin laws concerning personal secrecy and personal data protection.
The new LFAI contains a number of novelties, the most important of which is the establishment of an Agency for the Protection of Personal Data and Free Access to Information as a regulator overseeing the implementation of this law.
Specifically, as of today, the Agency will monitor the legality of administrative acts that decide on access to information requests and will undertake all measures stipulated under the law. That is, in so far as the person or entity filing the request is denied access to information by any state institution (or if the filer is unhappy with the response received), they can submit a complaint to the newly created Agency. Among other things, the Agency will in the future coordinate an information system for access to information, follow the conditions in the realm of access to information, as well as submit requests for the initiation of proceedings for violations of the law’s provisions.
Another important modification is the extension of the deadline for submitting a response upon receiving a request for access to information to 15 business days (the earlier law imposed a deadline of 8 days). This amendment represents a step back in relation to the preceding law, thereby violating the principle of urgency, or timely access to information.
The new also provides for the expansion of institutions required to respect the law, that is institutions required to act on requests that they receive for access to information. As a result, all state institutions are now encompassed by this law, including municipal councils and administrative authorities, as well as any business entities and other legal entities who’s founder, co-founder or majority owner is the state, including legal entities whose work is mainly financed by public funds, as well as physical persons, businessmen and legal entities that carry out public duties or manage public funds. This is a crucial change that means that even privatized enterprises will have to yield information to citizens. In this way, the Electric Power Company of Montenegro (EPCG), the Port of Bar, the Podgorica Aluminum Combine (KAP), the Plevlja Coal Mine, and other companies in which the state remains a majority owner or that manage public funds, will have to submit information about their dealings to the public. MANS will use all available legal mechanisms to ensure that this is the case.
Similarly, another important novelty of the new law is the mandatory release of information concerning public officials related to the fulfilment of their public duties, their incomes, property and potential conflicts of interest of these persons and those closely related to them. Additionally, the means funds from the public purse, can no longer be hidden from the public so long as state institutions actually respect the provisions of the new law.
In so far as the provisions of the new law are properly implemented, Montenegro’s public might for the first time find out in what way and under what conditions the current Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic was able to obtain a multi-million euro credit, which has been hidden from the citizenry for years. Similarly, the public might find out how Taksin Shinawatra was able to obtain Montenegrin citizenship, as well as information about the business dealings of KAP, the Niksic Steelworks, the EPCG, and other institutions and enterprises that have, until now, operated in a wholly nontransparent fashion, even though they play such a significant role in the lives of all Montenegrin citizens.
MANS will use all of its capacity to ensure that the new LFAI is actually implemented in a manner that will allow all citizens to obtain the information that until now has been kept under a veil of secrecy (in order to ensure that the law doesn’t simply become dead letters on paper). A significant unknown for now remains whether or not the newly formed Agency will be politicized, and whether it will be endowed with the capacity to ensure that the law is implemented property, which all remains to be seen in the coming months.
