The Sofia Municipality refused to provide information about a project for green areas to be realized in the territory of Park “Vazrazhdane” in Sofia.
Mrs. Mila Trifonova requested access to the documents related to the issuing of a decision for giving consent to a municipal company to spend funds for the realization of green areas. The file includes a report, a statement of the permanent committee and a draft decision. With the same request Trifonova demanded information about the expert assessment of a particular property in Sofia, as well as the program for the management and disposition of municipal property in 2011. With a decision as of September 2011, the Chief Secretary of the Sofia Municipality refused access on the ground that the report and the corresponding documents fell under the exception provided by Art. 13, Para. 2 of the Access to Public Information Act related to preparatory information with no significance of its own. Regarding the rest of the requested information, it was pointed out that it did not fall within the scope of the APIA.
With a Decision as of February 22, 2012 (in Bulgarian), a panel of the ACSC repealed the refusal and turned the request back to the Sofia Municipality for reconsideration. In their judgment, the panel pointed out that the Sofia Municipality should give an answer to every demand in the request. The administrative body did not ground its assumption that part of the information was not public under the APIA. Regarding the preparatory documents exemption, the court assumed that it was applicable only if a final act was issued by the administrative body since the public would obtain information from it. The court also pointed out that access should not be denied to the whole of a report on the ground of preparatory documents since besides opinions and recommendations, the report also contained findings with significance of their own as they reflect a momentous situation which was not subject to change.