The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection believes that the large and constant increase in the number of requests for the protection of the rights submitted by the citizens, the journalists, the media, and others, is indicative and worrying. The aforementioned increase confirms the existence of serious problems in achieving the rights guaranteed by the Constitution and the law. In this regard, the Commissioner Rodoljub Sabic also stated the following:

«In 2009, the number of registered cases with the Commissioner in the field of free access to information was 1,865. A year later, in 2010, this number was 2,898, meaning 55% higher. And, only in the first five months of 2011, the Commissioner has registered over 1,700 cases, which means that, if this kind of inflow continues, the total number of cases in 2011 could be over 4,000, resulting in a large percentage of increase.

The first consequence of this large inflow of cases is the lack of capacity of the Commissioner to address the cases in a timeframe defined by law. I apologize to the citizens because of this, but the objective reasons are at hand here, those that I cannot influence nor control. For a number of years, the Commissioner has been working in inadequate premises with a small number of associates, the number that is far below the number that is needed and planned, while the Government, except verbally, does not show any serious intention of resolving this issue. The consequence of this is that, at the present moment, 2,000 cases are being processed, which is a few months work in itself, even if we did not receive any new cases, but we do receive about 400 new cases a month.

However, a much more important problem related to the work of the Commissioner is the already considerable and increasing number of complaints. It is good that this number is a sign of increasing awareness and the readiness of the citizens to insist on their rights, but it is not good that this number is also clearly indicative of the serious problems in communication between state authorities and the citizens. It is especially worrying that the largest number of the aforementioned complaints are submitted due to the fact that the citizens cannot obtain information with regards to various manners of public finance and public good handling.

At the time when the fight against corruption is emphasized as a state and a social task of outmost importance, the best way to confirm this readiness is to ensure the greatest possible level of transparency of the work and the operations of state authorities and public enterprises.”