Information newsletter
Issue 02(26), February 2006

News
Compiled by Diana Bancheva, AIP

What is the price of the TV set that the former Minister of Interior Georgi Petkov gave as a Christmas present to an orphanage at the town of Smolian with the recommendation that orphans watched porn?
The information is public in character and should be disclosed according to a decision of a three-member panel of the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) as of February 2006. The Ministry of Interior refused silently to the Citizens' club Competency and Morality to disclose information about the source of and the amount paid for the present. The nongovernmental organization wanted to know whether the Christmas present had been bought with the money of the taxpayers. At a court hearing on January 30, 2006, the defendant's lawyer from the Ministry of Interior confirmed that the present Minister of Interior, Rumen Petkov, did not want to disclose the information either.

The Crown Agents saga continues
With their decision as of February 13, a three-member panel of the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) repealed again the refusal of the Minister of Finance to provide access to the contract with the British Consultancy Crown Agents. The ex-minister Milen Velchev refused to grant access to the document twice at the request of Kiril Terziiski from Access to Information Programme. The Minister insisted that the contract had been classified as a state secret. After the instructions of the five-member panel of the SAC, three judges from the Fifth division of the same court reviewed the contestable document at a closed session. According to the judges, the contract did not contain information that constituted state secret. The decision may be appealed. Access to Information Programme has been fighting for access to the contract for more than three years already.

A complaint against a refusal – dismissed
The Supreme Administrative Court upheld a decision of the Regional Court of Razgrad, which had dismissed a complaint against the refusal of the Duma newspaper. The media refused to provide the invoice they issued for a payment of advertisement to the newspaper. The information was requested by the Center for Nongovernmental Organizations - Razgrad. According to the judges, on one hand, the advertisement offer of the newspaper was public and the requester was aware of it. On the other hand, the media had expressed dissent in disclosing the information, which dissent should be respected. The lack of transparency in municipality deals/ contracts is often a prerequisite for corruption and inefficient governance, according to the Access to Public Information lawyers.

In a Month We Will Know About Highway Trakia?
On February 28, 2006, the Supreme Administrative Court heard the case initiated by the journalist Silviya Yotova of Novinar newspaper. She submitted a complained against the refusal of the former Minister of Regional Development and Public Works to disclose information about the construction of highway Trakia. The journalist requested the concession contract and the assessments that accompanied the decision for for signing it a year ago. The justices heard the case a day before another court panel to review the lawfulness of the decision itself. The contract of the contestable concession is public since the autumn of 2005 though the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works has not sent the document to the journalist. According to the legal counsels at the Ministry, the assessments constitute an administrative secret. According to the lawyers from Access to Information Programme, the Concession Act stipulates unrestricted publicity of all concession documents. The court will deliver its judgement within a month.