In a letter sent to the ad

Reports on compliance with the Law on Free Access to Information is a duty of government authorities

dresses of the highest government authorities, all Ministries and hundreds of other authorities, the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection reminded them of their duty under Article 43 of the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance, under which all government authorities, territorial autonomy bodies, local self-government bodies and organisations with delegated public powers have a duty to submit an annual report on the activities undertaken to ensure compliance with that Law.

The Commissioner also warned the authorities that failure to submit such reports is a punishable infringement under Article 48 of the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance.

The reports of government authorities, which are due by the 20th of January next year, serve as the basis for compiling the annual report on the current situation in the fields of free access to information of public importance and personal data protection, which the Commissioner submits to the National Assembly and forwards to the President of the Republic, the Government and the Protector of Citizens in March every year in respect of the preceding year.

In connection with this, Commissioner Rodoljub Šabić said:

“Just like every previous year, the Commissioner will duly comply with his duty and submit the Report to the National Assembly within the statutory time limit.

Unfortunately, I have to note that the National Assembly did not review the Commissioner’s Reports in the last two years. This fact is discouraging and, in my opinion, doubly harmful.

On the one hand, the National Assembly deprives itself of information about the current situation in two important areas of human rights, which could provide useful inputs for potential legislative intervention in those fields. On the other hand, it certainly sends a bad message to other government authorities: the National Assembly, as the supreme legislative body, is probably the last body one would expect to breach the duties it has under the law and its own Rules of Procedure.”