The Administrative Court in Stara Zagora has overturned as unlawful the decision by mayor Zhivko Todorov to refuse to provide information requested under Bulgaria’s Access to Public Information Act (APIA) by Venelina Popova, a journalist with “Za Istinata”, concerning retired people working in the municipal administration.
The ruling, issued by Judge Rayna Todorova on 23 March this year, was handed down in a case in which Popova was represented by lawyer Aleksandar Kashamov, executive director of the Access to Information Programme, a non-governmental organisation specialising in transparency and access to public information.
The request submitted by “Za Istinata” contained three questions:
- How many retired people work in the municipality and its municipal companies, and under what types of contracts?
- How many of these retirees hold management positions, and which ones?
- How much money is paid each year to working retirees in the municipality and its municipal companies?
The municipality’s legal department justified the refusal by arguing that, although the requested information was related to public life, providing it would not allow citizens to form their own opinion about the activities of the municipal administration.
The lawyers also argued that the information “is not created and stored by the public authority concerned” and that it would have to be produced specifically in response to the request by collecting data and preparing summaries, including a total figure for the annual amounts paid to working retirees.
The court rejected that argument.
It found that the complaint was well founded and that the mayor’s decision had been issued in breach of the law and contrary to the purpose of the legislation.
The right to seek and receive information is guaranteed by Bulgaria’s Constitution and by the Access to Public Information Act. The mayor of Stara Zagora is among the public authorities obliged to provide information under the law.
According to Kashamov, the court examined the case in considerable detail and established that the request concerned the mayor’s statutory powers to appoint and dismiss managers and employees in the municipal administration, as well as the spending of public funds connected with those decisions.
Such activities are regulated by law and must be based on the principles of legality, efficiency, transparency and openness. The spending of public money is, without question, a matter of public interest, the lawyer said.
The court therefore found that the mayor’s argument that the information was not public and could not help citizens form an opinion about the municipality’s work was unfounded.
The judges also rejected the claim that the municipality did not have the requested information.
The ruling notes that data on employees who have reached retirement age should already be reflected in annual reports on the state of the administration, where managers are required to provide information on how many employees entitled to a pension continue to work under employment or civil-service contracts.
There was therefore no basis for claiming that the municipality did not possess the information. At the very least, it would be available through payroll records, the court concluded.
The judges also rejected the argument that the municipality would have to create a completely new document by processing and consolidating existing data. Calculating the total amounts paid, the court said, would require no specialised knowledge or technology. Alternatively, the mayor could simply have ordered copies of the relevant documents to be provided.
Kashamov said the ruling sets an important standard for transparency in local government. In his view, it reinforces the constitutional obligations of mayors and reflects the traditional role of administrative courts in a democratic society as a safeguard against administrative arbitrariness.
The court has returned the case to the mayor of Stara Zagora for a new decision on the journalist’s request, taking into account the court’s instructions on how the law should be interpreted and applied.
The ruling is final and cannot be appealed before a higher administrative court.
“Za Istinata” said it would publish the information on retired people working for Stara Zagora municipality and the amount of public money spent on their salaries once the administration provides the requested data.
