Law on Free Access to Information represents a key mechanism for monitoring of the transparency and control of public accountability of government, and the quality of its implementation is one of the most important tools in the fight against corruption. This is the reason why, even though the law is implemented for many years, the growing tendency of institutions is to violate the law and to by concealing information hide the involvement of public officials in corruption scandals.
After more than two years of implementation of the new Law on Free Access to Information, generally aligned to European standards, the relationship of the State administration towards its full implementation still shows the same problems that were the reason for its change.
Many institutions, both at national and local level and further do not allow a complete overview of their work, although it is precisely defined by the law which information must be published and available to the public. Also, deadlines for submission of information upon request, although extended from 8 to 15 days, continue to be violated and transgressed. In support of this is the fact that the MANS, since the beginning of implementation of the new Law, filed over seven thousand complaints to the Agency for the Protection of Personal Data
and Free Access to Information. Illegality in the implementation of the law by State institutions is evident through the facts that the Agency 89% of filed complaints resolved in favor of MANS and pointed to the violation of the Law on Free Access to Information.
Since the beginning of 2014, MANS to almost all institutions financed from the budget of Montenegro filed close to 13,000 requests for information. As 2014 was another in a series of election years, most of our requests of information related to allocation of funds from the budget, which are obviously and symptomatically enlarged in the election years due to present a general negative practice that a party in power with taxpayers’ money buys votes for its
account.
The institutions have positively responded and submitted the requested information only in one-third of the demand, while claiming they do not have information that we were looking for in almost one third of cases. For the remaining third of the requested information, the institutions did not submit answer, but ignored filed request.
Although a proactive way of disclosure of information is regulated by the new law, and is mandatory for the institutions, less than two percent of requested information institutions published on their websites.
Institution at the state level that mostly violates the right of citizens to freedom of information is the Ministry of Finance, the institution that has all information on the expenditure of funds from the state budget. For months it hides information on expenditures that occurred right before local elections in 12 Montenegrin municipalities, apparently to conceal different types of irregularities. The Ministry so far has not responded to over 170 submitted requests, of which some were filed earlier this year.
Besides the Ministry of Finance, to the large number of requests did not respond
neither the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ministry of Economics, Ministry of Science, Ministry of Transport and Maritime Affairs, Directorate for Development of Small and Medium Businesses, Committee for the Control of State Aid and many others.
Also, a number of Centers for Social Work hide information about social benefits in the past, probably as a result of the fact that the MANS so far uncovered a number of irregularities, actually vote-buying by one-time granting of social benefits, as is the case with Center for Social Work in Pljevlja.
Beside state, the date on one-time social benefits, and other kind of aid, apartments, consumption of public funds, employment etc, are hidden at the local level as well, especially from the municipalities were recently local elections are held.
Leading the various bodies of the capital Podgorica, which hide most requested data. Most are silent: Secretariat of Finance of the capital Podgorica and the Office of the Mayor of Podgorica. Hiding information is present and in other municipalities, leading Bijelo Polje, Bar and Berane.
MANS, since the beginning of the year, filed slightly more than 4,000 complaints, of
which 90% is resolved in our favor. There are launched and 152 administrative disputes, and so far the Administrative Court in more than half of the complaints decided in favor of MANS.
We invite the Agency for the Protection of Personal Data and the Free Access to Information to begin with rigid application of the law, especially in the part of filing initiative for criminal proceedings in competent authorities against institutions that violate the law in order to
ensure that institutions are finally fully begin to apply law that exercise one of the key human rights – the right to free access to information.
Radovan Terzic
Coordinator of the Legal Program
