According to our sources, Mr Rodoljub Sabic, The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, and Mr. Sasa Jankovic, the Ombudsman, will meet this week with Mr. Nebojsa Rodic, new Director of the Security Information Agency.
Among other issues, they should address access of security services to "retained data", i.e. to citizens' phone contacts (who talked to whom and how often). It will probably be the first of a number of meetings these independent bodies will have with representatives of the new Government in connection with recommendations they gave a month ago.
Upon inspection of phone operators – who and how uses data on citizens' calls – it was found that only one of the four operators in Serbia registers listing control, although they must all do this according to the law. This operator received 4,000 requests for access to listings in one year and more than half of them were without a court order, i.e. they were illegal! In the same period, 272,000 direct accesses to databases without any authorization were also recorded. When all accesses to citizens' communication are viewed together, these numbers exceed one million.
"The Commissioner and the Ombudsman did what was up to them, found irregularities and gave 14 recommendations to the Assembly and the Government. We now have to wait and see how many of them will be complied with", said Commissioner Sabic.
The then Minister of Police and now also the Prime Minister Ivica Dacic immediately responded and supported all proposed measures. Among these measures are urgent amendments to the law which would clearly specify which courts decide on requests of the police and security services to control citizens' communication. The measures also insist on precise records on access to those contacts to avoid abuses. It was also suggested to introduce legal regulation of the private security sector and to impose criminal sanctions for obstructing investigations by independent supervisory public authorities.
This was a result of disagreements which arose during the inspection of operations of MIA (Military Intelligence Agency), which refused to comply with received recommendations. We will know very soon whether anyone will bear the consequences because of this and to what extent the recommendations will be complied with. As we learned at the Office of the Minister of Defence and the First Deputy Prime Minister Responsible for Defence, Security and the Fight against Corruption and Crime Aleksandar Vucic, this issue will be on the agenda as soon as all government institutions are fully staffed.
Similar promises were also given by Ms Jadranka Joksimovic, Chairperson of the Security Services Control Committee of the Assembly. She said that "Commissioner's and Ombudsman's recommendations will be one of the first issues addressed when this Committee meets".
Interfile : MILITARY INTELLIGENCE AGENCY INTRODUCES LIE DETECTOR
Inspectors had the best cooperation with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Security Information Agency, while the worst cooperation was with the Military Intelligence Agency. According to the Ombudsman's and Commissioner's report, it threatened with legal consequences to its employees who give information to inspectors. It even used a lie detector to find out who sent an anonymous letter the Ministry of Defence and pointed to irregularities!
