Citizens are not supposed to know how much the top management of Electric Power Company of Montenegro(EPCG) earns, according to this company, and thanks to the Law on Free Access to Information, they can now hide this information from the public.
By using this precise law, the Network for Affirmation of NGO Sector (MANS) tried to access employment contracts and payrolls of the EPCG management. However, a series of requests from this NGO was rejected.
In a decision rejecting MANS’ request for access to information, EPCG states that “the requested documentation does not contain the information for which there is a prevailing public interest in disclosure”, and that the disclosure of the requested information “would jeopardize the interest of the persons to whom it relates, since it is the personal data of a natural person, which would mean violating of his privacy”.
MANS explains that despite the problematic segments, the existing Law on Free Access to Information is clear in the part which stipulates that, according to the Law, the public must be provided with an insight into all data relating to funds allocated from public revenues. EPCG, on the other hand, still believes that there is no interest of the public to be familiar with the salaries of employees, “having in mind that these costs are not a burden to the citizens of Montenegro, nor in any way jeopardize the public interest,” the company stated in the decision delivered to MANS.
Even if it were true, the management of EPCG is responsible for other costs that citizens pay every month through their electricity blls, which are the direct quality management product of this state-owned company, thus, citizens have the right to know how much the management is paid for what we have as a result.
MANS has previously warned that EPCG’s privatization did not yield the expected results, and that the strengthening of domestic management with foreign experts also did not yield the desired results. Instead, the citizens of Montenegro continue to pay almost the highest price of electricity in the region, the quality of electricity supply is still low, while there are also no expected investments in the distribution network itself. All this points to the fact that the foreign partner has not met almost any criteria for continuation of cooperation.
Despite all this, EPCG assessed in this case that citizens do not have to know what are the earnings of managers for such work, i.e., that their private interest is prevailing in relation to the public. In doing so, EPCG made such decision without having even carried out a harm test to determine this, according to MANS.
“For all possible limitations of access to official documents, where there is a legal basis for this, harm and public interest test must be carried out, which would undoubtedly demonstrate whether the public interest or a particular interest prevails,” Snežana Bajčeta from MANS explained. She adds that this is prescribed by the current Law, but these are inaccurate provisions that need to be harmonized with international standards as soon as possible. “The Court of Justice of the European Union is clear that while refusing the access, it must be explained in what way the access to information specifically and actually undermines a particular interest, private one in this case. The very fact that the document in some way relates to an interest protected by an exception is not only not sufficient to prohibit access, but in cases where the Law is not restricted by access, the public interest is undoubtedly the prevailing one,” Bajčeta concludes.
EPCG deposits in most banks also a secret
It is unknown under which conditions EPCG had €260 million in banks at the end of 2016, out of which only 7 million was a long-term deposit. As much as €195 million was treated as a short-term deposit, which always has a lower interest rate than the long-term and an additional 58 million in cash, for which the minimum interest rates are also calculated.
MANS requested this information from EPCG, and the company denied it by claiming that the approval for their disclosure must be sought from commercial banks.
Only two banks, NLB and Societe Generale Montenegro, gave their consent to EPCG for publishing a deposit agreement. In Prva banka, Addiko, Erste, Hipotekarna and Komercijalna banka Budva, in early 2016, EPCG had close to €148 million of short-term deposits. In addition, out of a total of €58 million, EPCG had €51 million at Prva banka. These banks did not give consent to EPCG to publish deposit agreement.
D.M.
Text was published in Daily Dan on July 7, 2018
