The half-hearted solution that PES MP Vasilije Čarapić believes is a compromise, and is reflected in the fact that both citizens and the state pay their court costs due to the silence of institutions, will effectively reduce the number of those who use the Law on Free Access to Information, said this morning on Boje jutra, Deputy Director of the Network for the Affirmation of the Non-Governmental Sector (MANS) Dejan Milovac.
According to him, the government's intention is to narrow the space in which citizens, the media, and the civil sector can control them.
"Unfortunately, if this amendment passes the plenum of the Parliament of Montenegro, the most vulnerable categories of the population who do not have enough knowledge to write a complaint themselves and through administrative proceedings obtain the information they need and exercise some of their rights will suffer the most from this solution. In essence, this amendment is a solution that derogates from the very essence of free access to information," Milovac emphasized.
He also pointed out that this "access to information will not be free, but reserved for those who have the money to pay the court costs."
"MANS' experience, and many other non-governmental organizations and media also use our service, is that the silence of administrative bodies, refusal and ignoring of these requests is still one of the dominant problems we face, especially after 2020 when there was a change of government. In some cases, we have active sabotage, so citizens are deprived of what should be public information," said Milovac.
According to him, the fact is that there were certain abuses by certain organizations, especially lawyers, to obtain huge legal costs for themselves.
"This is something that should be addressed with specific individual measures, not a blanket form that will suspend the right, or deny effective judicial protection to everyone, not just those who abuse it. This is not a solution and we will fight against this amendment," Milovac said.
He also recalled that the amendment that would allow data on the assets and income of persons associated with public officials to be obtained through the Law on Free Access to Information was rejected.
"This further derogates from the essence of the law. Our practice shows that cases of illicit enrichment and corruption do not only occur at the address of a certain public official, but there is a dominant intention to hide the property in the hands of related persons. We have a current case where certain former police officials had apartments that they owned and used under the names of certain companies," Milovac warned, recalling the case of Milo and Blaž Đukanović - "Pandora Papers", a house that Vesna Medenica's granddaughter received as a gift...
"This type of data should have been made possible by the amendment, but a good part of the ruling majority does not believe that it should be that way. It is obvious that there is no political will among the new government...", said Milovac.
He pointed out that the current majority promised transparency, that every prime minister since 2020 has promised full transparency in his manifesto.
"None of these amendments that are currently taking place have been agreed with the European Commission, nor has it ever heard of them. No public debate has been organized, and they significantly change the nature of the law. We hope that we will succeed with a good part of the MPs by Tuesday to ensure that the regulation that we have been waiting for since the end of 2020 is not 'knee-jerked'. The Law on STI is an absolute anti-corruption law and an indispensable tool for detecting corruption," he concluded.
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