OVERISGHT PROCEDURE OVER THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE LAW ON PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION IN THE SO-CALLED “SENIOR CARD” PROJECT
The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, on the occasion of the so-called “Senior card” project presented yesterday by the Prime Minister and the Mayor of Belgrade, was addressed by numerous journalists with questions related to the project. The Commissioner points out that this is an interest which is quite legitimate, but that, according to the law, information cannot be requested from the Commissioner, that it must be requested from the authorities in whose work it was created, that is, from the city authorities, and only if they deny it, they are entitled to file a complaint with the Commissioner.
The Commissioner expects the city authorities, in order to pre-empt any complaints to the Commissioner, on a proactive basis to provide answers to questions that have already been opened in the public, such as, for example, which authority and when made the decision on the "Senior Card" project, whether and when the tender procedure was announced for the production of the cards and the website which, as announced, it will be available to card users, what exactly means that the "first" cards are free and from which funds are paid, does this mean that pensioners will pay for “other” cards, when and how much, etc.?
The Commissioner does not call into question the importance of endeavouring to improve the living conditions of pensioners, as a particularly vulnerable structure of the population, on the contrary, in principle supports any such effort. But precisely because of the social importance of such activities, it warns that, especially if they are undertaken by authorities or representatives of the authorities, they should not be the subject of any provisional actions, "advertising", political or personal promotional activities, etc., and especially that they cannot be justification for non-compliance with the law.
However, by inspecting the Central Registry, it was established that the Belgrade City Administration, as a data controller, although it was obliged under the Law on Personal Data Protection (Article 51), did not report a data file containing data on “Senior Card” users. The city administration also failed, although it was its legal obligation (Art.49), to inform the Commissioner about the intent to form such a data file, where both things per se are punishable offenses under the Law on Personal Data Protection.
Starting from the above, the Commissioner ex officio initiated the oversight procedure over the implementation of the Law on Personal Data Protection by the Belgrade City Administration. The Commissioner ordered the city administration to make a statement within the period of 3 days on a number of relevant issues related to the legal basis for forming the data file, the type and extent of the personal data collected, whom collected data will be made available, personal data protection measures that have been taken, etc.
Upon completion of the oversight procedure, the Commissioner will, as usual, inform the public about the established facts and measures to be taken.
