06. 02. 2005

IMPOSSIBLE WORK CONDITIONS FOR SABIC

BELGRADE, February 6, 2005 – Since he was appointed a Public Information Commissioner, Rodoljub Sabic has got “not a single pencil” from the Serbian government, let alone offices or any logistic support, daily Danas reported. Sabic has appealed twice to the Serbian Government’s Secretary-General, president of the Serbian Parliament and Minister of Culture, however, without any result. First complaints of the citizens started to arrive at the Parliament’s address, the only logic place for them. First court settlements will be passed in the following days, but Sabic says that no one has been, even formally, appointed to assist him in his work, even though a lot of work is expected. “The Public Information Commissioner’s duty is to handle more than a thousand subjects. Aside from the state authorities, there are also public and other budgetary companies, all organizations with public authorizations and institutions on provincial and municipal level. People can request information from all of them, but they will all come to me to complain”, explained Sabic. The commissioner did not want to discuss his salary, since it was the last thing that bothered him at the moment. He is more worried for the institution of the Commissioner to start operating. Otherwise, he would either appeal to the institutions to start doing their job, or he would give up the whole idea because he did not want to keep pretending that something was operating smoothly when it did not. The Culture and Information Committee is expected to forward the request to the Serbian Parliament for the approval of the documentation on the work of the Commissioner. The Committee will then urge the government to ensure the proper work conditions, and will appeal to state authorities to come up with the propositions for implementation of the Information Act.