At least 1081 complaints were submitted to the Commissioner for the Right to Information and Protection of Personal Data during 2022.
More than half of the institutions were then forced to make transparency during the administrative investigation phase as there are over 217 complaints outside the office premises.
The data have been made public in the Commissioner's annual report, which brings to attention even the most "hot" issues for which transparency has been requested after the rejection of the institutions.
"Out of a total of 1081 complaints, for 643 of them the requested information/documentation was made available to the complainants, during the development of the administrative investigation process by the Commissioner's Office. Also, the Commissioner's Office has issued 51 decisions for 61 complaints. From these decisions, 35 decisions were given to order information, 9 decisions to overturn, 4 decisions not to accept and 3 decisions with administrative sanction.
Citizens or interest groups focused on the search for information/documentation on funds/reconstruction process, health system/pandemic, on issues in international arbitration, concessions, procurements, judicial decisions, statistical data on the activity of public authorities", it is stated in report.
The commissioner's office has underlined that some issues of lack of transparency or delays have been identified, where this is firstly related to the cyber attack on the websites of public authorities (PA).
Secondly, according to the report, the uncertainty on the part of the PAs continues, regarding the principle of confidentiality in public contracts and commercial secrets treated not in accordance with the provisions of Article 17 of the law on the right to information.
"Public contracts often provide for confidentiality provisions for the information/documentation related to them, and in case of non-implementation, sanctions are provided for PAs. In order to avoid this problem, it is necessary to clarify in the confidentiality clauses which part of the information they cover, considering that it cannot prevail over the provisions of the law on the right to information, except when provided for in the specific law. , says the report.
Thirdly, according to the report, there have been cases of delegation of the request for information from one PA to another, even though the required information is available.
In some cases, applicants continue to use the provisions of the law on the right to information beyond its object and purpose for administrative issues/practices of an individual nature, such as: access to personal data, documentation related to building permits, the consequences of the earthquakes of the year 2019, ownership, recruitment procedures.
Another element according to the report is the frequent change of the coordinator for information, his or her assignment at the executive or lower management level, as well as the limitation of access to other PA structures.
Due to the role and responsibility that the coordinator has in handling requests for information, the Commissioner's Office continuously instructs the APs to take measures to strengthen his position./Monitor