The Slovenian National Assembly on March 24 approved broadening the application of the Access to Public Information Act to cover private bodies performing public functions.
The National Assembly’s action was the second vote for the reforms, required to override a vote against the changes by upper chamber. (See previous FreedomInfo.org report.) The Assembly vote was unanimous, as it was the first time on March 6.
The law now will cover companies and other private law entities which are under direct or indirect dominant influence of the government, local authorities or other public law entities.
An entity is considered to be under dominant influence when the government or other public law entity either owns share capital, has the right to appoint more than half of the executive or supervisory board members, or can in any other way enforce its management rights, according to a summary from the Slovenian Information Commissioner’s office.
Large companies owned by the government, but not performing public powers or public services (e.g. companies providing telecommunication services, insurance services, certain banks etc.) also will be covered by the APIA.
In addition, public bodies and other entities obliged to provide public sector information, will have to proactively publish data on all their contracts.
Data will be collected centrally and will be published on a common portal.
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