Access to Information Programme | Court cases - Report about Bulgarian citizens and companies who were involved in oil trade with Iraqi companies or their representatives during the Saddam regime

Veselka Venkova (Duma Daily) vs. the Council of Ministers

Vesselka Venkova, a journalist from Duma newspaper, filed a request to the Council of Ministers. She inquired information about the dates and destinations, types of transportation, and expenses paid regarding the Premier’s official domestic trips since his 27 July 2009 inauguration. Venkova was granted partial access to the requested information.

Borisov’s office surprisingly responded that the Prime Minister had paid by himself for the trips – implying that he had not spent any public money, and therefore was not required to disclose such information. Borisov’s office also disclosed that memos had been written about each of the trips, that the Prime Minister traveled in the National Protection Service’s cars, and that he had also used the government airplane Falcon 2000 once and a military helicopter also once. The response contained no information about the dates and destinations of his trips within Bulgaria.

With a decision as of April 16, 2010, the Administrative Court – Sofia City repealed the partial refusal assuming that the information regarding the Prime Minister’s official trips was public information under the APIA, and the public had the right to access it.

As a result of the litigation, access to the requested information was granted to the journalist.

Also, the administrative practice was changed. The Head of the PM’s Administration started fulfilling the obligation of writing memos about each official trip of the prime minister and granting access to these memos at a request.