TI BiH won 14 lawsuits against institutions in 2014 years

During 2014, Transparency International BiH filed 32 lawsuits against public institutions for violating the Law on Freedom of Access to Information, which were mainly related to the misapplication of certain articles of the law, failure to conduct a public interest test and silence of the administration. Out of a total of 32 disputes, 14 judgments were rendered in favor of TI BiH, one dispute was lost by TI BiH, and the remaining 17 cases are still pending.

The largest number of lawsuits, 24 of them, were filed by TI BiH against public authorities for failure to submit copies of work contracts concluded during 2012. and 2013, which were required by TI BiH due to the frequent practice of institutions to circumvent employment transparency precisely through the conclusion of employment contracts.

Among the institutions sued by TI BiH for failure to submit work contracts are, among others: SIPA, Indirect Taxation Authority, Central Bank of BiH, Republic Administration for Geodetic and Property Affairs of RS, some entity and cantonal ministries, and local self-government units. It is symptomatic that in all these cases, the institutions concluded without conducting a public interest test that they could not submit copies of the contract because they would violate the Law on Personal Data Protection. Out of 24 administrative disputes, the courts resolved 10 disputes, of which TI BIH won 9 disputes. Only one dispute was lost, but in that case the procedure on the request for extraordinary review of the court decision is in progress. The remaining 14 proceedings are still pending.

One of the most recent disputes won by TI BiH was relations with the City of Banja Luka, which submitted contracts, but refused to submit the names and surnames of persons with whom contracts were concluded, with the explanation that “submission of names and surnames of persons who concluded contracts is violation of the Law on Personal Data Protection and that the submission of names and surnames of persons who concluded these contracts is irrelevant, in relation to the information on how many contracts have been concluded and how much budget funds have been allocated. TI BIH pointed out in the lawsuit that the City has a selective approach in the alleged protection of personal data, because it protects only the data of persons concluding employment contracts with the city, while for example on its official website publishes names of many persons applying for certain permits and they compete in public calls, where sometimes the names of the parents of these people are even published. The lawsuit also points out that the City concludes contracts and spends funds on behalf of citizens, which is why there is a justified public interest in submitting this information. The lawsuit of TI BIH was adopted by the verdict of the District Court in Banja Luka, and the decision of the City was annulled. The court concluded in the verdict that “by submitting the requested data, insight into the transparency of public bodies and in this case the amount of allocated budget funds for the implementation of the contract, and that the name and surname of a person does not represent personal data but social and legal identification of a natural person . ”

On the one hand, the number of lawsuits received by TI BiH against public institutions for violating the Law on Freedom of Access to Information indicates the creation of positive tendencies in court practice, but on the other hand it still shows non-transparency of institutions, their persistent disregard for legal provisions. and negligence towards public funds, because any dispute that an institution loses goes to the taxpayers. TI BiH considers that the recorded positive examples from case law are extremely important because they affirm the right to access information by teaching public authorities about the importance of publicity of their work.

Press rls – 09.06.2015..doc