Press Releases - Archive

The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection has conducted a training program for public authority bodies on correct implementation of the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance from 4 to 6 July as part of a project supported by the Kingdom of Norway.

Representatives of several ministries and other state authorities participated in the first in a series of trainings planned in July, which lasted for two days.

The main objective of the training organized for persons authorized to act on requests for access to information is furthering their knowledge on the right to access information, on how to process the requests, on the purpose of the Directory and other forms of proactive disclosure of information.

The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection has passed a Decision in which he ordered the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs to give Citizens' Association "Civic Initiatives" of Belgrade access to information on earmarked transfers allocated for development and establishment of social security services, i.e. to provide them with copies of the documents which contain information that reveals which local self-governments had signed agreements on these transfers with the Ministry, what amounts were allocated for each local self-government unit which had signed such agreements on earmarked transfers, which types of services were funded from those amounts and how many beneficiaries received those services.

"Civic Initiatives" had sent a freedom of information request to the Ministry, but the Ministry failed to act in any way pursuant to that request within the statutory period; the association therefore filed a complaint with the Commissioner to protect its rights. As the Ministry had not provided any justified reasons for not acting pursuant to the request, the Commissioner passed the said decision.

The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection sent a letter to the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure in which he suggested that the Ministry make efforts to make publicly available on a proactive basis any information it has on the developers, contractors and subcontractors, if any, working on the Corridor 11 highway, by posting and regularly updating such information on its official website.

The letter was sent following communications from a group of citizens and their legal representatives, who had notified the Commissioner they had contacted a number of government authorities and officials in connection with this issue.

Based on the Agreement on Retrieval of Status Register Data entered into between the Business Registers Agency and the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, the Agency's web service commissioned today, together with upgraded software implemented by the Commissioner, would significantly improve the functioning of the Central Register and allow new users/data controllers to retrieve in real time a predefined, accurate and updated data set directly from the Business Registers Agency's information system at the time of their registration with that Register by entering the registration number of an economic operator, subject to the full scope of security and safety measures which should apply to such data transfer.