In 2022, the Agency for the Protection of Personal Data and Free Access to Information (AZLP) had no regular inspections, while there were 114 extraordinary ones. In the same year, in relation to the protection of personal data, the Agency also carried out 13 inspections. In total, last year, 127 inspections were carried out, which is the most in the past four years.
This, among other things, is shown in the Report on the state of personal data protection and the state of access to information for 2022, which was submitted by AZLP to the Committee for Human Rights and Freedoms and the Parliament of Montenegro.
In relation to free access to information, as stated in the report, the total number of requests received by authorities in 2022, which were submitted to the Agency, is 6.997.
In the reporting period, the first-instance authorities issued a decision in 4.734 cases within 15 days from the submission of the request, while the first-instance authorities exceeded the 15-day decision deadline in 2.264 cases.
According to the report, the largest number of requests for SPI, in 2022, were submitted by non-governmental organizations, 4.501, which is 58 percent of the total number. In the reporting period, natural persons submitted 2.491 requests (35 percent), economic companies 226 (three percent), legal entities 105 (1,5 percent).
In 2022, the media submitted 76 requests for SPI, institutions or institutions 22, political parties 21, sports teams four.
The largest number of requests was sent to public institutions (1.305), municipalities (1.295), ministries (1.189), administration (983). 854 requests were sent to one of the agencies, and 432 to companies.
Among those who sent the most requests for SPI in 2022 is the Network for the Affirmation of the Non-Governmental Sector (MANS). From that NGO in the last year, they sent 2.081 requests. Followed by Emina Mraković (lawyer at law Dejan Klikovac), who sent 904 requests, NGO "Glorija", which sent 404 requests, NGO Društvo prijatela Biblioteke Njegoš - Nikšić, which sent 395 requests, NGO president Temida Nikšić Dragiša Karadžić sent 263, and lawyer Dejan Klikovac 240 requests for SPI.
In 2022, as stated in the report, 8.865 appeals were received, 3.743 were decided, while 2.307 were adopted.
The number of complaints in the reporting year is the highest since 2017: 2021 complaints were filed in 5.400, while the number of complaints in all previous years is lower.
As for the submitted complaints, the largest number of them were submitted by non-governmental organizations - 2.385. Last year, natural persons submitted 1.336 complaints.
"The increase in the number of reported complaints - 8.865 - is still worrying. A high number of complaints submitted to the Agency are still characterized by cases of abuse of the right to free access to information, through the submission of a large number of requests to the same obligees of the application of the Law with the aim of realizing the right to the costs of the procedure, which, due to the short deadlines of the procedure, result in the realization of considerable costs of the procedure through the engagement of lawyers as representatives ", the report states.
The Agency adds that this issue should be taken into account when drafting amendments to the Law on Free Access to Information.
"During the past four years, the court costs at the expense of the budget amounted to over 650.000 euros. The question of abuse of the right to free access to information should be limited in practice to examples when the requests are too vague or include extremely extensive documentation, when they require disproportionately large efforts of the authorities to act, when unreasonable and frequent requests interfere with the normal work of the authorities, and at the same time the authorities make additional efforts in handling", they state in the report.
Also, as they add, in a situation where the request is repeated for already obtained or available information, which is in the case of an appeal, that is, an administrative dispute, "the authority is also obliged to prove".
They also propose to extend the decision-making deadlines (the current legal solution is 15 days from the date of filing the complaint), which would leave enough time for the Agency to carry out all actions and make a decision in a high-quality manner.
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