Dr. Tamás Katona, under-secretary was referring to this information as „trade secret” on a press conference, on 18 July, 2006. But after receiving our official request for public interest data, he referred to it as it was only a „forecast” that, in his opinion, was not being data.
Both of the arguments are quite interesting since the Civil Code clearly defines that state or municipal budget and data related to them cannot be considered trade secret. According to the data protection act, all the information recorded by state institutions is public interest data. This rule is obviously covers budget deficit related information.
HCLU cannot accept that the Ministry of Finance conceals information on utilization of a billion HUF and arbitrarily overwrites the fundamental norms of freedom of information. The Ministry’s denial is illegal and decreases the trust in the Hungarian State by intentionally neglecting the principles of a transparent state.
A case against Ministry of Finance
HCLU filed a case on 4 September against the Ministry of Finance for not releasing information on a billion HUF deficit in the budget of 2006.