Source: "Blic"
When, at the end of last year, the National Assembly enacted the Law on Stipulating the Maximum Number of Employees in the Republic Administration and the Law on Stipulating the Maximum Number of Employees in the Local Administration, as the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, I welcomed the provisions of these laws, for they promote the transparency of government’s work. For example, Article 6 of the first Law states:
“Data on the number of employees and contracted persons, as well as data on the amount/sum paid for their salaries, allowances and compensation are public.
State administration authorities, public agencies and organizations for mandatory social insurance are required to publish data from Paragraph 1 of this Article on their website, at the end of each month.
Register data on the number of employees and of persons in the state government, public agencies and organizations for mandatory social insurance and the amount paid for their salaries, allowances and compensation is registered at the Ministry of Finance and published on the website of the Ministry.”
More or less the same is stated in the Article 11 of the other Law. This implies that, not only is the transparency of the data on the number of employees in the government and the amount of funds spent on their salaries and benefits in accordance with the Law on the Free Access to Information, but it is additionally confirmed by these Laws. However, not only that there are usually no such data on the websites, and “of course” there is no register on the Ministry of Finance’s website, but the access is even denied when specifically requested, all of which is a common cause for complaints to the Commissioner.
What are the registers good for if there aren’t any? It is high time they appear, with at least two obviously good reasons for that. The first one – laws are being passed in order to be complied with. The second one, the more important - it is a way to allow the public to provide a useful contribution to building a more efficient and better organized government and fight against irrationality, irresponsibility and corruption. And that contribution is not only welcome, but necessary.
