(Podgorica, October 2. 2013.) – Agency for Personal Data Protection has never received any application by any person or legal entity in Montenegro for the publication of identification numbers on the websites of the Tax and Real Estate Administration in Montenegro, which further confirms the suspicion that the removal of identification numbers was done not to prevent misuse of the data, but in order to successfully hide the actions that are, in the business and real estate world, carried our through these two institutions.
After unilateral removal of identification numbers from the Tax and Real Estate Administration, MANS asked the Agency for Personal Data Protection information on how many people or legal entities reported suspicion about abuse of their identification numbers located on the websites of the companies and land registers. The response we received from the Agency stated that so far no one has submitted the application, nor a case like that is recorded in their practice.
This certainly opens the question on motivation of these institutions to unilaterally remove identification numbers, since the personal data protection could not be a reason, having the lack of reports of abuse.
On the other hand, in the Real Estate and Tax Administration of Montenegro, and in the Agency for the Protection of Personal Data are clearly aware of the fact that specifically the identification number of people or company is critical in identifying link between them, and MANS for a long time is using their databases as the basis for its investigations of links between corrupted officials and members of organized crime structures in Montenegro.
Based on these data, MANS so far discovered numerous scandals and filed dozens of criminal charges for suspected corruption and organized crime. Exactly these application
are the only motive for these institutions to erase the identification numbers from their registers, and by doing that to slow down the fight against corruption, and not the protection of citizens from abuse of their identification numbers.
The identification numbers are even unilaterally removed in Summer, and no one from the Tax and Real Estate Administration did not say a word in which way the identification numbers can be misused, or listed any case that happened related to the information that can be found on their websites. On the other hand, the benefits of public identification number are known to everyone, and they are documented in hundreds of pages of evidence awaiting processing by the prosecution and the police, and were possible to collect thanks to the fact that information on individuals and companies were publicly available.
Hiding the registration number on the way that was done by the Tax and Real Estate Administration is the huge favor to criminals and those who help them in order to hide their jobs and property from Montenegrin public. The only thing that these institutions have not done yet is deletion of first and last names from their registers, with the explanation that this is also a personal data, but even without that these two registers already have characteristics of secret, and not public records.
Relying these institutions on EU practice and standards is completely meaningless given the fact that most of the countries of the European Union publicly presents data of citizens and companies on which is possible their authentic identification.
MANS is requesting from the Tax and Real Estate Administration to immediately return in their registers the data on people and legal entities, because it is shown so far that the security of the citizens’ data is not compromised, and that the direct and specific public interest exists for these data to be available to everyone.
