In his letter addressed to Ms Kori Udovicki, Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection reiterated the Initiative for Amendments to Law on Public Administration,proposing the Lawto be amended by provisions which would stipulate the duty for public authorities to have their electronic presentations and to provide for application of those provisions mutatis mutandis to local self-government authorities, agencies and state public enterprises, as well as to provide for sanctions by the law for violation of that duty.

In that regard, Commissioner Rodoljub Sabic also said the following:

"The report on status of websites of public administration authorities for 2013 prepared by the Directorate for eGovernment, which was submitted to the Government for review reaffirmed that situation in this field is unsatisfactory. In addition to low quality of the content of the existing websites, the fact that as many as 22 public administration authorities do not have any electronic presentation is particularly worrying.

At the same time, we are witnessing consistentlyhigh and increasing public interest in information on the work of the government. Internet presentations should not be the place for self-advertising of authorities or public officials; instead, they should be the means to make exercising of the right of the public more sound, faster and more efficient. The right of the public to receive information on legal and other duties of authorities and the manner of fulfilment of such duties, work plans and reports on work, information on revenues and expenses, information on the number of employees and other hired persons, information on services a public authority provides, information on public calls, public procurements, public debates an authority implements etc. is absolutely legitimate.

Public authorities have a responsibility to ensure that the exercise of the rights of the public is as simple and efficient as possible. Indeed, Article 76 of the Law on Public Administration explicitly provides for an obligation of public authorities to inform the public about their work through the media and by other appropriate means. In this day and age, which is called the "electronic" or "digital" age for a reason, there are no means more appropriate than a website.

I would like to recallthat I launched a more or less identical initiative nearly three years ago. It had no effect at the time and, as a consequence, we are now facing a situation we obviously cannot and should not accept as satisfactory. I hope – nay, I would like to believe – that this time there will be more willingness to improve the situation."