One year after the change of government, the Montenegrin public does not have even a percentage more information compared to what we had during the rule of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), while, when it comes to the legal framework, things still have not moved from the deadlock.
The director of the MANS Research Center, Dejan Milovac, said this to "Vijesti".
Around the world today is the International Day of Free Access to Information.
The government should soon discuss the Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on Free Access to Information (FIA).
Milovac cited the state airline Air Montenegro as an example of non-transparency and refusal to comply with the current Law on SPI.
According to the solutions that "Vijesti" had access to, they refused to provide MANS with information regarding the contract for the lease of office space, documentation related to the costs of making the promotional video "Born to fly" (including the offers that were collected , the decision on the selection of the most favorable offer, contracts that were concluded for the purposes of making the mentioned spot, invoices that were paid), as well as copies of the consulting contract, agreement or other type of document that regulates the relationship with Lufthanza Systems GmbH & Co.
"After a new series of decisions by which the state airline prohibited access to information about how it spends money, it is clear that we can no longer talk about ignorance of the relevant law, but about the continuation of the practice that largely characterized the previous three decades of party management of state companies... The former airline is an example that should have been learned from, and not blindly followed by repeating the same mistakes. I think it is absolutely unacceptable that the management of AirMontenegro treats the company as if it were privately owned, and not owned by all citizens who have the right to know how it is managed," said Milovac.
He believes that "there is no reason for a state-owned company to protect the privacy of the people it does business with, nor, as we have seen, to agree to contracts with third parties that were created to protect private, not public, interest."
"We don't see a single valid reason for the public not to be informed about the costs of renting office space, or investing in marketing activities. In addition to unilaterally refusing access to complete information, the state-owned company did so without conducting an adequate harm test, through which it would actually have the space to justify why the publication of any of those documents would be harmful to the public interest or the interest of the company," Milovac points out.
AirMontenegro, on the other hand, claims that "the authority can limit access to information or part of information, if it is in the interest of protecting commercial and other economic interests from the publication of data related to the protection of competition, as well as business secrets related to intellectual property rights and if the information is a business or tax secret in accordance with the law".
"...Business secret information, i.e. a set of data that is not fully or partially generally known or available to persons from the circles that regularly work with this type of data, that have economic value because they are not generally known and to which appropriate confidentiality protection measures are applied on the basis of which the company that legally owns them ensures their secrecy, as well as that a business secret is information that is designated as a business secret by law and other regulations. On September 1, we requested consent for the publication of the contract in question and they declared that they did not agree with the publication", the company answered to "Vijesta" the question regarding the contract for the lease of office space.
They also claim that, in accordance with the Law on STIs, they performed a harm test.
"By which it was established that the disclosure of the requested information would constitute a violation of the provisions of the contracts in question, which prescribe the confidentiality clause, to which the contractual parties have committed themselves by signing them", according to AirMontenegro.
When asked about the promotional video, the national airline said that "the requested documentation, that is, the information contains data that represents the intellectual property of the bidder, and this authority does not have approval for their disclosure."
"Also, the requested contracts contain a confidentiality clause, and by signing the contract, the contracting parties have committed themselves to comply with the contractual provisions, so a possible violation of them would result in compensation for damages. The disclosure of the requested information significantly jeopardized the interest from Article 14 of the Law on Free Access to Information, since restricting access to the requested information is in the interest of protecting intellectual property rights contained in the requested documentation," explained AirMontenegro.
The company also points out that the contract with Lufthanza Systems GmbH & Co "contains provisions on the confidentiality of data that the contracting parties are obliged to sign".
"In the same article, it is prescribed that information may not be disclosed to a third party without the written consent of the contracting parties. Via email, we asked the authorized person of Lufthansa Systems GmbH&Co.KG to approve the publication of the information, i.e. the contract in question, and they did not give consent for the disclosure of information to any to a third party. In the end, this body, in accordance with Article 16 of the Law on Free Access to Information, carried out a harm test and determined that the disclosure of that information would constitute a violation of the provisions of the contract in question, which prescribes a confidentiality clause, and to which the contracting parties were criminally and materially obligated by signing it." , they said from the national airline.
Milovac assesses that "this gives the impression that the management of the company agrees too lightly to the confidentiality clause in the contracts it concludes with third parties, regardless of their value".
"This waives the right to adequately represent the public interest in such a legal matter, which in this case is the public's right to know how AirMontenegro's money is spent," he said.
Milovac also says that "transparency in the work of state institutions is one of the key preconditions for civil control of their work and a successful fight against corruption."
"This is especially important when it comes to companies founded by the state with the aim of bringing additional money into the budget. We had the opportunity to see how hiding data is fertile ground for corruption and abuse of various kinds, using the example of the infamous fate of Montenegro Airlines", he concluded.
Principle three, there is no action
In his exposé, Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapić stated "complete transparency" as the third of the 13 working principles of the "first democratic government".
"Transparency of the work of everyone in the state administration, as every individual, and especially officials, should prevent corruption and bribery, but also ensure a timely response to all non-compliances. This is a common obligation of all of us, especially the media, trade unions, the NGO sector and literally every individual," his exposition states.
Milovac points out that "today we celebrate the International Day of Free Access to Information, and that just such examples show that a change of government is not enough for a fundamental change in the attitude of institutions towards the public's right to know".
"Unfortunately, even with the new government, we do not have a sufficiently developed awareness of how important free access to information is for a successful and sustainable fight against corruption, and that big words can be useful as political marketing, but that the real democratization of our country will require very concrete actions in the direction of improving transpatent work of state bodies", points out Milovac.
CGO: New government on the beaten path of business secrets
From the Center for Civic Education (CGO), they assessed that proactivity reigns in hiding, instead of publishing information.
"It is particularly worrisome that the new government, which promised a huge improvement in transparency compared to the previous one, in practice continues on the well-trodden paths of non-transparency, as well as the abuse of certain legal institutes in order to hide information," said Human Rights program coordinator Tamara Milaš.
She points out that contracts with experts hired by the government in certain departments, for the rental of premises for temporary or long-term work, contracts with directors of certain public companies are declared business secrets, while numerous transactions from the state account, or documents on controversial jobs, remain unknown.
In this NGO, they believe that Montenegro is still far from fulfilling the standards in proactive publishing and enabling access to information, and that the work of the Agency for the Protection of Personal Data and Free Access to Information (AZLP) does not contribute to this.
The announcement adds that the amended Law on SPI has not yet been submitted to the Assembly, although the first year of the mandate of the new convocation of the Government is coming to an end soon.
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