They hide information about businessmen despite the European practice

The Director of the Real Estate Administration, Dragan Kovačević, yesterday, on the occasion of the non-governmental sector's protest against the removal of the registration numbers of real estate owners from the Internet register, said that in this case the laws - on the protection of personal data and on free access to information - are in conflict, so the relevant institutions should work to harmonize them and resolve doubts.

He said that they removed the data on the order of the Agency for the Protection of Personal Data "which stated that by publishing the social security numbers they are violating the law on the protection of personal data".

"The Real Estate Administration has a more than correct cooperation with non-governmental organizations and we have always met them as much as possible", said Kovačević to "Vijesta".

And the Tax Administration, in response to the claims of the Network for the Affirmation of the Non-Governmental Sector, stated that they removed the data based on the Agency's decision, although they admit that the provisions of the Business Companies Act, which provide for their publication, and the Personal Data Protection Act are not harmonized.

"The Law on Business Companies was adopted several years before the Law on Personal Data Protection, which has been in force since 2008. The Personal Data Protection Act is a systemic law, which in Article 77 prescribes that "data collections established before the date of entry into force of this Act shall be harmonized with this Act within 9 months from the date of entry into force of this Act". Therefore, the collection of data on business companies should have been harmonized much earlier and the legal provision itself regarding the disclosure of data to individual persons should have been amended and adapted to the provisions of the Law on the Protection of Personal Data", the Tax Administration announced.

From this state institution, they pointed out that the unique identity number is undeniably the personal data with the highest level of protection and that they are obliged to comply with the order of the competent institution.

"Article two of the Personal Data Protection Act stipulates that personal data cannot be processed to a greater extent than is necessary to achieve the purpose of the processing, nor in a way that is inconsistent with their purpose. The Central Register of Business Entities collects data with the purpose of recording founders, members of management bodies and responsible persons in business companies, and not with the aim of providing data for interested parties from any sector", stated the Tax Administration, reminding that the registration numbers of business companies have not been removed. in that they are "available to interested 'researchers'".

"If the Tax Administration had intended to help criminals, it would have removed that data as well. We believe that the situation in this matter is clearly explained and that we will no longer respond through the media to the views of the NGO MANS or any other organization regarding the same. We also emphasize that we will review the procedure for the direct inspection of documentation, and contact the competent authority for issuing instructions on whether we are obliged to provide protection of the identification number in that situation as well", announced the Tax Administration.

Regulations need to be harmonized: Director of the Real Estate Administration Dragan Kovačević (Photo: Boris Pejović)

Yesterday, MANS reacted to the earlier announcement of the Director of the Tax Administration, Milan Lakićević, and claimed that the Agency for the Protection of Personal Data and Free Access to Information could not, through the controller, order the Tax Administration to remove the identification numbers from the website, because according to the Law on the Protection of Personal Information persons, this can only be done by a decision of the Council of the Agency.

This organization claims that the purpose of removing the registration numbers is to make it impossible to determine with absolute certainty any new case of corruption and organized crime, the connection of public officials with members of organized crime through ownership structures in companies or joint ownership of real estate, or to prove that they are public officials hid some illegally acquired property.

This organization states that the purpose of publishing data on business and real estate owners is to identify them, and that by publishing only names and surnames, the public of the registers is meaningless and prevents minimum reliability because they are not sufficient to accurately identify someone. That is why they called on the Tax Administration and the Real Estate Administration to respect the practice of the European Court of Human Rights and Montenegrin laws and to return the registration numbers to their online registers today.

The judgment of the European Court orders that the data can be published

MANS announced that it is incomprehensible that the prevention of media and non-governmental sector research is "attempted to be done under the guise of alleged protection of privacy and personal data, in a way that is contrary to the views of the European Court of Human Rights and EU standards".

"When it comes to the protection of privacy, according to the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, which is binding for Montenegrin institutions, private life includes physical and mental integrity, and the guarantee provided by Article Eight of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms is primarily for aim to ensure, without outside interference, "the development of the personality of each individual in relation to other human beings".

In this case, the applicant did not prove that the public publication of personal data concerning membership in a certain organization caused him any damage in this sense. However, he confirmed that "anyone could find out who is a member by simply checking the membership register". Accordingly, the European Court concluded that the publication of such data does not constitute interference in private life", MANS announced.

Gallery