Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection has through persons authorized for supervision in the period from  April 18, 2011 to May 9, 2011 implemented supervision over executing the basic obligations from the Personal Data Protection Act in 33 agencies, institutes and other organizations on the republic level.

The supervision has been performed solely in the part prescribing the obligation of the authority to form records on personal data collections in a prescribed manner, and to deliver them to the Central Register for entry.

The Commissioner has sent to 31 authority adequate warning notice, and against the managers of 13 authorities requests shall be submitted for starting infringement procedure.

In relation to that, the Commissioner, Rodoljub Šabić, said as follows:

 „We have started supervision activity already in December 2010. According to the attitude that the issue of responsibility should be initiated, first in relation to the highest state authorities in power, the action started with supervision of ministries in the Government of the Republic of Serbia and has resulted in submitting request for starting infringement proceedings against 14 Ministers last December.

In February 2011 subject of supervision were authorities within the ministries, and the result was again quite worrisome – which resulted in 9 requests for starting infringement procedure against managers of those authorities.

All this warns that we shouldn’t be satisfied with the relationship of the authorities in power towards obligations from the Personal Data Protection Act. And with such attitude of the authorities towards legal obligations it is almost illusory and unfair to insist on responsibility of private subjects and entrepreneurs for fulfilling their obligations.

Degree of failure to observe even such most elementary legal obligations is so high that it speaks not only of the lack of discipline, but also of obvious lack of training of the authorities in power to implement the law.

Therefore I once again appeal to the Government of Serbia to undertake some important steps which are really late. As first, to adopt Action Plan for Implementing Personal Data Protection Strategy and to start its implementation as soon as possible. The Strategy has been adopted after much hesitation already in August 2010, and the deadline for adopting Implementation Action Plan has lapsed already 9 months ago. Because of that, the Strategy remains only “letter on a paper”.

By adoption of the Action Plan and after that, by serious, real efforts for its implementation, one should secure conditions for much better, but necessary results in implementing the modern personal data protection standards. One of the most important conditions is  also insisting on the obligation of the people in the authorities in power to execute the law and to secure necessary preconditions for that type of education.“