The Access to Information Programme Foundation calls for withdrawal of a bill amending the Access to Public Information Act |
The Access to Information Programme Foundation calls for withdrawal of a bill amending the Access to Public Information Act. According to Alexander Kashumov, who heads the Foundation’s Legal Department, the proposed amendments would create chaos.
The bill, submitted to Parliament on February 28, 2007, envisages longer time for handling applications requesting to use information (20 instead of 14 days as it is now), higher fees, a new more restrictive regime, Kashumov said.
The sponsors of the bill propose to introduce a term „interested persons“, while under the operative act nobody needs to prove their interest in the information required.
Any legislative initiative should be accompanied by a cost benefit analysis, said Svetla Kostadinova, Executive Director of the Market Economy Institute. There is not such analysis for the amendments proposed, and their approval will lead to serious expenditure, she said.
In Kostadinova’s words, calculations made by her Institute show that if the fees for receiving information are increased, expenditure would rise by about 60,000 leva; extending the time for receipt of information from 14 to 20 days will boost the expenditure of companies waiting for information by about 70-80,000 leva.
The amendments make it possible for the administration to interpret the act and refuse access to information. Such refusals will be disputed in court and the minimum expenses on such cases would be 50-60,000 leva, Kostadinova said.
If approved, the new amendments will lead to expenditures of 200,000 leva a year, with part of the money going into the training of nearly 500 people who would enforce the new legal provisions.
