At a meeting addressing restitution issues held at the National Assembly recently, in response to complaints put forth by the participants pointing to a lack of transparency in connection with restitution, Deputy Prime Minister Mr. Djelic proclaimed: “You will no longer need Information Commissioner Rodoljub Sabic, we will now post all information on the Internet”.
I did not feel this remark “you will no longer need” was ill-meant; quite the contrary. I have been handling numerous complaints regarding access to information on restitution for quite some time now and, unfortunately, more often than not access to such information is granted only upon Information Commissioner’s intervention. With this in mind, any move that would reduce my caseload would of course be most welcome.
Unfortunately, in a matter of days I faced a situation that cast a deep shadow on the promise “we will post all information on the Internet”, making it sound paradoxical. The Restitution Network, which had filed numerous complaints in the past, recently filed another one. On their request to be given access to documents drawn up by the Working Party of the Ministry of Finance formed on 17 November 2009, that Ministry produced only a copy of the Minister’s resolution on formation of the Working Party, explaining that “the Chairperson and several members have ceased performing their duties”. The applicants were additionally “advised” that the Ministry of Finance held no other documents!
The main issue here is not the fact that such “response” by the Ministry defeats the purpose of “posting on the Internet”, but the fact that their answer can mean only two things, both of them equally deplorable. One apparent explanation is that the illustrious Working Party failed to produce a single document in more than a year and a half of its operations! The other possibility is that someone is, for some reason, curtailing public access to that Working Party’s findings and, in doing so, verges on committing forgery at the very least by issuing a communication – an official document – with false information and certified by a government stamp!
Either way, the situation beggars belief. There is only one possible remedy for this: we need a third option. We need appropriate, serious and responsible action by competent authorities to address this important issue. That such action needs to be in the public eye at all times goes without saying.
