Request:
In December 2017, Emilia Dimitrova (journalist from Sevlievo Online and AIP coordinator for Gabrovo District) filed a request to the Municipality of Sevlievo asking for information about the officials sent on business trips abroad in 2017. She requested information about
- Officials’ position, the exact dates of the trip, the purpose of the trip, way of travel (by airplane, car, bus, etc.) and number of days spent abroad;
- Information on the costs incurred in each of the trips for visas, transport and per diems;
- Information on the visits of foreign delegations and guests to the municipality of Sevlievo in 2017 according to dates, purpose of the visit, the position of the guests, the number of days spent and the costs incurred by the municipality to ensure the visit.
Response:
The Secretary of the municipality granted partial access to the requested information - the total amount of funds spent from the municipal budget for official trips of municipal officials abroad and the total amount of funds for provision of visits of official foreign delegations in the Sevlievo municipality. The rest of the information - the details of each trip abroad and of foreign visits, is denied on the grounds that it is a protected personal data.
Complaint:
The partial refusal was appelaed before the Administrative Court - Gabrovo with the argument that the requested information did not constitute protected personal data under the meaning of the Personal Data Protection Act as it concerned the fulfillment of official duties.
First Instance Court Decision:
By Decision No. 25/09.03.2018, the Administrative Court - Gabrovo, the partial refusal was repealed and the request was returned to the municipal secretary for a new decision in compliance with the court instructions on the interpretation and application of the law. The court accepts that the refusal on the grounds of personal data is unlawful, as the information requested concerns the activities of the local authorities and the local administration, which means that the trips for which data are sought are official and refer to specific activities related to the realization of the activity of the municipality itself. Therefore, the information concerns the citizens and their organizations. These trips and visits are funded by the municipality budget. The budget is raised from taxes paid by citizens and legal entities. The latter are entitled to the requested information in order to be able to find out how the administration works, what for their money indirectly go in the end, how are the international relations of the municipality formed and maintained, and what kind of persons were invited from abroad, what were the purposes of their visits and for what period. The decision also noted that the municipality had not conducted a third-party consent procedure or took into account the possibility of granting partial access to the requested information. The decision was not appealed and came into force.
Impact of the case:
The information was provided by the Municipality of Sevlievo to the journalist. On the base of the information obtained, the journalist made a series of publications showing mismanagement of funds and doubtful results for official trips of municipal officials abroad. For her persistence and impactful use of the Access to Public Information Act, Emilia Dimitrova was awarded with the 2018 Golden Key Award for journalistic investigation on the Right to Know Day Awards Ceremony - 28 September 208: http://www.righttoknowday.net/en/ceremonies/203561/2018/