From the beginning of the year until November 26, 23 complaints were submitted to the office of the Secretary General of the Government of Montenegro regarding the failure to act on requests for free access to information, which were answered by "News" from the Agency for the Protection of Personal Data and Free Access to Information.
In the same period, there were two cases of non-action by the office of the President of Montenegro, and seven cases of the Parliament of Montenegro.
During almost 11 months, AZLP received 5.899 complaints, and in 2.719 cases they related to the violation of procedural rules - silence of the administration.
"In the period from January 1 to November 26, the Council of the Agency made and submitted written decisions in 5.692 cases, in such a way that in 1.957 cases the appeal was accepted due to the silence of the administration, in 1.255 cases it made a decision on the suspension of the procedure, in 478 rejected the appeal because it was determined that there was no silence from the administration, in 947 cases he annulled the decision/act of the first instance authority and returned the case to the first-instance authority for re-procedure and decision-making. In 605 cases, he rejected the appeal as unfounded, in 437 due to lack of jurisdiction, in three cases as inadmissible, in two as untimely. In one case, the appeal was partially accepted, and in one case, for the purpose of the decision-making process, the Council of the Agency initiated the inspection procedure at the competent Administrative Inspection", stated the agencies headed by Čedomir Mitrović.
They emphasize that 573 complaints were lodged with the Agency for the Protection of Personal Data and Free Access to Information.
It was clarified that this is a person who, on his own behalf or on behalf of non-governmental organizations associated with him, has been "burrowing" AZLP with demands and complaints for more than a decade.
There were 437 complaints against the "Drago Milović" Elementary School in Tivat, 220 with the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP), 212 with the Vocational High School "Mladost" from Tivat, and 157 with the "Ivan Goran Kovačić" Junior High School in Herzegnov. complaints.
According to the AZLP records, the Council of the Agency cites incompetence as the most common reason for rejecting appeals, but also unfoundedness after the procedure comes to the information that "the first-instance authority made a decision, and that the appeal refers to determining the quality of submitted documents, which is not the Council's legal competence Agencies of other institutions".
"The Agency, as a second-instance body in its work, has submitted complaints from previous years that were not precisely specified on the day of submission of the response, because we deal with the analysis of outstanding cases in the annual reports," said the Agency.
At the end of October, the Administrative Court announced that they have more than 14,5 active lawsuits related to the administration's silence, that is, to the "non-response of public administration bodies to requests for free access to information within the stipulated time."
They warned at the time that this could cost the state several million euros in attorney's and court fees and compensation.
From that institution, they reminded that the Law on Free Access to Information provides for a deadline of 15 days for deciding on requests, but also that the same deadline is provided for the Agency's decision on appeals against first-instance decisions.
"It is clear that such short deadlines favor abuses by certain natural persons and non-governmental organizations... The intense growth in the number of cases related to the silence of the administration occurred especially in 2022, and continued in 2023. Apart from the short deadlines for deciding on requests and appeals, the very content of the requests of some (not all) NGOs and one natural person indicates that the actions of those NGOs and natural persons are not aimed at exercising democratic control of the government and realizing human rights and freedoms, nor in the public interest , but a way of making money for people who abuse that right", the court warned at the time.
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