The reform of public administration decree n.33/2013 regarding the civic access The legislative decree n.97/2016 amended the consolidated text of the existing decree regarding the right of access to public records and documents, updating the existing principles of publicity, transparency and diffusion of information held by the public administration.

The decree introduced several modifications and articles with the purpose of simplifying and ruling the principles of transparency as well as granting the rights of citizens, leaving the term transparency behind and introducing the idea of liberty of information. The decree modified the existing set of rules, stating that the transparency needs to apply not only to information but also on records and documents held by the public administrations, with a primary goal of protecting the rights of citizens.

The most important change brought by the decree might be the exclusion of personal and legal interest from the process: from here on out, it is possible to make a request to access the public records and documents held by the public administrations without the motivation; with the eventual refusal from the public administrations being justified only in cases specifically indicated by the decree. In other words, public administration would have to justify why the citizen should infect be denied of access to the public records and documents in question.

Decree introduced a list of subjects that are to be considered public administrations to avoid the misperception on what might constitute the term of public administration. That being said, however, the right to access the public records and documents concerns just the public administrations, not the private entities (foundations and companies).

According to the decree, the public administrations are bound to publish all documents and data of collective interest on the institutional site under the section ‘Transparent administration’. This means that the information concerning, for example, times for realization of public works, wage of public officers, health waiting lists and criteria for their formation - need to be available for consultation and use on the institutional sites of administrations. The failure to publish these data and documents constitutes a disciplinary offense.

Furthermore, citizen has the right to make a request to access the data and documents held by the public administrations to the responsible entity, usually the office which holds the documents and data in question, office for public relations, or to the responsible for prevention of corruption and transparency, in cases where the data and documents in question have been subject to a mandatory publication by the public administrations according to new version of the decree. The decree also states that the responsible for prevention of corruption and transparency is to be held responsible for the control of the adequate execution of the publics right to access and obtain certain information’s and documents. Administration to which is made a request of access is required to give notice to counterparties, who are entitled to make an objection to a request in question.

The acceptance of the request to access the data and documents by the public administration, leads to the transmittal of said documents to the citizen, or, in case of documents that are subject to a mandatory publishing, the public administrations are bound to publish them on the institutional site. In case that the request is accepted despite the objection of the counterparties, the administration proceeds with transmittal of the documents to the applicant, however not before the period of 15 days since the counterparties have received the notice of acceptance of the request has expired. If administration is to no respond or deny access by the deadline set by the decree, the applicant could propose a request of a review to the responsible of prevention of corruption and transparency.

Anyhow, the final result needs to be a reasoned decision.

In case of data and documents regarding the regional administrations or local entities the appeal should be petitioned to the ombudsman, which needs to decide in 30 days.

Like every other rule this one too is subject to certain restrains and limitations according to the article 5bis of the new decree. Access could be denied in cases where its considered necessary in order to protect public order, national security, politics and finance stability, as well as protection of personal information, economic or commercial interests of individuals, private property included.

Moreover, the decree added a new set of rules regarding the access to data and documents for the scientific purposes within the art. 5ter. In said cases, to be authorized, access needs to be undersigned by the representative of the applying entity, stating the purpose of research, the researchers that are to have access, documents requested, as well as the reasons why are they of vital significance for this particular project; in addition to methods of research and the results that might eventually be diffused.

Finally, the new decree states that all the data and documents need to be provided free of charge, (online or paper form), with an exception of refund of the costs effectively sustained and documented by the administrations from the reproduction of support materials.