Civic City of Lubartów

September 28, 2020

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We received the decision of the Local Government Appeals Court, which for the second time agrees with us in the dispute with the Mayor of Lubartów.

The case concerns the disclosure of the names and surnames of the beneficiaries of the Low Emission Reduction Program for the City of Lubartów. We know that this is public information, but this knowledge is not always common. Here - the same view as ours is shared by the Local Government Appeals Tribunal. We publish the entire decision. You don't have to take our word for it. Here are excerpts from the decision of the Local Government Appellate Court which we sign. Especially on the International Right to Information Day : 

Firstly: “From Art. 61 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland clearly indicates the right of everyone to receive information about the activities of public authorities, so access to information should be considered a rule, and refusal to provide information as an exception that cannot be interpreted broadly. "

Secondly: "The Local Government Appeal Court in Lublin emphasizes that the opinion of the first instance authority is incorrect that the disclosure of names and surnames of natural persons who are beneficiaries of the indicated program violates their privacy. (...) According to the already well-established position of administrative courts , a person who concluded a contract with a public authority or a public authority contractor receiving benefits from public funds, is a person whose privacy is not protected under Art. 5 sec. 2 udip (...) Persons concluding civil law contracts with a local government unit had to take into account that their personal details would not remain anonymous. For a person requesting access to public information related to the conclusion of civil law contracts , the names and surnames of the parties to these contracts are often more important than their content and it is understandable for obvious reasons . "

These considerations can also be found in the decision of the Local Government Appellate Court.
"... data on persons cooperating, in particular with public administration bodies, as well as data on contractors of these entities, such as names and surnames, are subject to disclosure pursuant to the Act on access to public information and are not subject to exclusion due to the privacy of these persons indicated in art. . 5 sec. 2 udip (...) This allows to counteract such pathologies of public life as, for example, nepotism or any other waste of public funds (...), and also enforces transparency, honesty and legality of the actions of public authorities and is to ensure social control over the activities of public administration and entities managing public property. (…) Access to public information is an important element of the actual functioning of democracy as a system in which citizens have a real influence on public affairs and actually control public entities. "  

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Really  you think that it is not worth knowing whether a person speaking more or less publicly on, for example, the need to save, limiting aid funds for various groups of residents, or more broadly - citizens, undermining the legitimacy of social assistance and the like, being a public figure or a family member of such people - by any chance she herself does not use the support, which also includes all the inhabitants of Lubartów? 
In our opinion, it's worth it.