The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection said that yesterday’s reaction of representatives of the city government to the opening of the oversight procedure over the implementation of the Law on Personal Data Protection regarding the “Senior Card” Project, represents a nervous, noncultural and transparent attempt to deceive the public.
The Commissioner will not comment on the street manners and the vocabulary of the city manager, a city official who has obviously completely lost the coordinates in relation to his own role, position and responsibility, but will dwell only on facts.
The Commissioner initiated the oversight procedure because the inspection of the Central Register established that the Belgrade City Administration, although it was obliged under the Law on Personal Data Protection(Art.51), failed to report a data file containing data on users of “Senior Card” and it did not also, although it was its legal obligation (art. 49), notified the Commissioner of its intent to form a data file, where both things per se are punishable offenses under the Law on Personal Data Protection (Article 57).
City representatives yesterday, vulgarly insulting the Commissioner, made allegations that they informed the Commissioner “about the intent to form a data file” and that it was “all by law”. They hid from the public that the notice was delivered to the Commissioner after the oversight procedure was initiated yesterday, just before the end of the working day. More importantly, they also hid the fact that the law clearly obliges them to deliver such notice to the Commissioner “no later than 15 days” before processing. With such a state of affairs, it is perfectly clear that their claims that they are doing “everything by law" are completely untrue.
Here, the story of deceiving the public could end. Unfortunately, there is something else, worse. It is an attempt to make the public aware that what happened did not happen, that prior to the notification of the Commissioner they did not process any data, which literally represents an attack on common sense.
Even if we missed to see on television, among other things, the completed forms and printed “senior cards”, even those who would like to believe them should face a humiliating conclusion that the city authorities put the President of the Government, with or without her knowledge, in the role of background actor in the advertising spot in which they deceived “lucky winner” and a full hall of pensioners, and through TV also thousands of viewers, by delivering a “non-existent” fictitious “senior card”.
The Commissioner expects the city government representatives to stop with unworthy actions, and to make a statement on all issues that were raised during the oversight procedure within the set deadline.
The Commissioner also expects the city authorities to understand that they have an obligation to answer citizens to questions that have already been raised in the public. First of all, on the question of why, if it is a sincere intention to help pensioners, the city government, instead of providing pensioners with desired benefits by decisions of the city assembly or competent bodies of public companies, enters the project more adequate to commercial entities and the collection and formation of a new, enormous data file, which also implies the possibility of misuse. And when it already opted for, it also owes answers to the questions - which authority and when made the decision on the “Senior Card” project, whether and when the tender procedure was announced for the production of hundreds of thousands of cards, as well as the website which, as announced, it will be available to card users, what specifically means that the "first" cards are free, does this mean that pensioners will pay for "other" cards, when and how much, etc.?
