Around 30% of the total complaints presented to the Commission for Access to Administrative Documents (CADA) are against local authorities, which do not make document consultation available, revealed the entity that ensures compliance with access to administrative information.
“The number of complaints against local authorities presented to CADA is between 25 and 30% of the total number of complaints received. This is a very relevant number and it has been rising”, said CADA's legal advisor, Sérgio Pratas.
Speaking to the Lusa agency, the legal advisor reported that complaints against local authorities totaled around two hundred in 2021, almost doubling in 2022.
“In 2021, we had 197 complaints against local authorities, but in 2022 the number shot up to 368. We are currently preparing the activity report for 2023 and we still don’t have the numbers”, he added.
In addition to local authorities, public entities subject to the Law on Access to Administrative Documents (LADA) may be the target of complaints, be they central State administration, indirect State administration, regulatory entities, professional orders, municipal services or companies. public.
“It is the entire Portuguese public administration and also some private entities, when they are public service concessionaires”, he clarified.
In 2018, CADA received 672 complaints globally. In 2019 and 2020, global numbers registered a slight increase, with total complaints rising to 2021 in 825 and rising to 1.101 in 2022.
According to Sérgio Pratas, after receiving a complaint, CADA proceeds, initially, to notify the public entity, intervening only afterwards, when necessary, with the issuance of “a non-binding opinion”.
“I can say that around a third of complaints are resolved without the need to issue an opinion, that is, the public entity provides access to the document. Regarding the complaints that are submitted for an opinion, around 90% are accepted, even though the opinion is not binding and without the need to go to court”, he stressed.
The first Law on Access to Administrative Documents (LADA) was published in 1993, four years after the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic enshrined in its text “the right of access to administrative files and records, without prejudice to the provisions of the law on matters relating to internal and external security, criminal investigation and people’s privacy”.
In 1994, the first Commission for Access to Administrative Documents (CADA) took office, an independent administrative entity, which works alongside the Assembly of the Republic and aims to ensure compliance with legal provisions relating to access to administrative information, in particular the Law No. 26/2016, of 22 August (LADA).
To Lusa, the legal advisor also said that, in addition to CADA, the legislator created a second figure “unknown to many”.
“The legislator provided that each public entity subject to LADA must designate a person responsible for access to information (RAI). In other words, he is a figure similar to the data protection officer that everyone knows nowadays, because if he is not appointed, a fine will be imposed,” he explained.
Contrary to what happens with the General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Law, in relation to LADA there is “no sanction for not designating the person responsible for access to information”.
In his opinion, the fact that there is no sanction explains, in part, why “there is some degree of non-compliance on the part of the local authorities”.
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