The Ministry of Internal Affairs is hiding data on the number and price of Fiat 500 patrol vehicles purchased for the police force. Allegedly, the data is strictly confidential
As things stand now, the citizens of Serbia will not be able to find out how much they paid for the purchase as taxpayers vehicles "Fiat 500", popularly known as "fica", which is Ministry of Interior acquired in order to use them as patrol vehicles.
The Ministry refused to "Today" submit information on the price of the "Fiat 500" with the explanation that the procedure and subject matter of the procurement of motor (passenger) vehicles for the needs of organizational units of the Ministry of Interior and all accompanying documentation are classified information.
In the explanation, it is further stated that the contract on the purchase of "fija" stipulates that the contract with all attachments and documentation shall be classified as "confidential".
According to that contract, as claimed by the MUP, only persons who work directly on the implementation of the contract and who have signed a statement that secret data will be handled in accordance with the Law on Data Secrecy can be familiar with the entire documentation or part of it, and the contracted parties (MUP and the seller) undertake not to disclose any information or data related to the business of the contracting parties without the written consent of the other party.
In the explanation for the rejection of the requested information, it is also stated that the price cannot be announced, because it is in the tender documentation that contains the technical specifications of the vehicle, so its publication would jeopardize the interests of public safety, but it would also jeopardize the safety and work of police officers who perform their duties. perform during the use of "fica".
Although "fiches" were declared special purpose vehicles by the MUP, because they are used as patrol vehicles, they are essentially the most ordinary "fiches" that are marked with police markings on the outside, and are special vehicles equipped with a rotating light, sound signaling (siren), and the interior they differ from ordinary "fiches" and other civil vehicles only in that they have an installed car radio connection, which all taxis also have. It remains unclear how publishing the possession of such "sophisticated" equipment would jeopardize public safety and the safety of police officers.
The number of "fiches" purchased is a secret because it reveals the capacities of the MUP
The authorities did not even answer the question of how much the MUP bought these vehicles.
In the explanation for the rejection of the request, the Ministry of Interior states that the number of vehicles indicates certain capacities of the Ministry, which, in combination with other data that we requested to be made publicly available, could threaten public safety in terms of assessing the equipment of vehicles for special purposes (fiche), i.e. technical characteristics and capabilities of the same by potential perpetrators of criminal acts.
"In terms of the protection of security interests and the stated factual situation, which refers to data from documentation that is determined by a certain degree of secrecy and which as a whole constitutes secret information, it was assessed that the same should not be made available on the basis of the Law on Free Access to Information from of public importance" is written at the end of the explanation for rejecting our request.
Given that it is about "fiches", the question arises as to how it is possible that the number and price of these vehicles is a secret, the flow, for example, of every purchase of weapons for the army is made public.
The public almost always knew about every major purchase of fighter jets such as MIG 29 or ordered Rafales, air defense systems, combat vehicles etc... and how much they were paid for. This information was almost always communicated to the public personally by the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić.
According to this explanation of the MUP, it can be concluded that the publication of the contract for the purchase of "fiches" is a much greater security risk for Serbia than the publication of the number and price of complex defense weapons systems used by the Serbian Armed Forces.
Not even an answer was sent to the question why it was decided to buy "fiches", with the explanation that the MUP does not have such a document.
And the purchase of Škoda in 2017 was declared a secret
In an almost identical matrix, in 2017, the public was denied the right to find out the details of the purchase of 700 Škoda Rapids purchased by the MUP.
At that time, the MUP also declared the procurement a secret, referring to the same reasons as now regarding the procurement of "fiches".
However, at least then the number of purchased vehicles was announced, but not the details of the contract.
As with the procurement of "fiches" for the purchase of "Skoda", a tender was not announced nor were they purchased through public procurement.
Source: Today
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