MANS was extensively using the Law on Free Access to Information (FOI Law) for monitoring implementation of laws and policies, but also for investigating concrete cases.
Moreover, we were providing legal assistance to citizens to obtain information held by the government. Since the first FOI law was adopted, in late December 2005, till the end of 2013, we submitted almost 60.000 requests for information to responsible institutions, nearly 13.000 appeals to supervisory institutions and initiated about 9.000 court cases.
We developed solid judicial practices with about 75% success rate. Due to such extensive work, we have arguably the largest experience in this area, not only in the country, but in the whole region. In February 2013, the Parliament adopted new FOI Law. MANS proposed many amendments which were mostly included in the final law.
The most important change brought by the law is change is related to introduction of a single supervisory body, common for all institutions.
Since introduction of the new Law, we submitted over 7.600 requests. Institutions provided about 45% of requested documents. We submitted over 2.800 appeals and 95% of decisions were in our favor. We also submitted over 80 cases to the Administrative Court, with over 70% of favorable decisions.
Responses to FOI Requests (Feb – Dec 2013)
Not competent – 14%
No information – 16%
Restricted – 1%
Already published – 2%
Silence of administration – 19%
Allowed – 44%
Partially allowed – 2%
Correction of request – 1%
Other responses – 1%
During implementation of the new law, we managed to broaden the list of institutions required to provide information through strategic litigation. Several publicly owned companies are now obliged to respect FOI law and provide information on their work.
These include the most important companies for Montenegrin economy which are partially state-owned, such as National Electricity Company and Aluminum plant of Podgorica (KAP), but also other legal entities that are performing public duties such as the Central Depository Agency.
We also managed to obtain some documents that were claimed secret for number of years, despite of judicial verdicts made in favor of transparency. For example we managed to obtain information on honorary Montenegrin citizenship for former Thai Prime Minister and some former ministers of the Palestinian government.
Since institutions provided us with about half documents that we requested, we compiled one of the largest archives in the country, containing documents that are mainly not available online. In this year we started turning the archive into searchable, electronic documents, in order to make them publicly available.
In 2013, MANS conducted awareness raising campaign throughout the country in order to promote the new FOI Law among citizens. We distributed over 10.000 promotional materials and templates for requests for information in seven municipalities. At these events about hundred people wrote their requests for information that were submitted to the government.
In order to broaden diversity and develop capacities of FOI applicants, we organized meetings and provided trainings to the Freedom of Information Network composed of 33 NGOs, journalists and Trade Union members, which we established a few years ago. MANS was continuously maintaining on-line system for submitting requests for information and posting obtained responses at our web site. In this year we were preparing special online software and mobile application for submission of FOI requests.
