Is Customs Office Wall equivalent to the press or the Internet?
14:39, May 16, 2015 | News, Own newsOn May 5, 2015, the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor received the Decree by the Tax and Customs Agencies Appeal Commission, RA Ministry of Finance on dismissing the administrative complaint. Back on February 26, 2015, the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor filed an inquiry to the RA Ministry of Finance to provide a solution to the problem of citizen M. G. who consulted the Organization. The RA Ministry of Finance provided information on all the points of the inquiry, except for one (a copy of the customs agencies database) arguing that “/…/ the summarized list of the fees available at the customs agency database of vehicles moved over the RA customs border is published and submitted to the RA Ministry of Finance specialized customs for vehicle clearance in the relevant special place /…/” On April 10, 2015, the HCA Vanadzor submitted an administrative complaint to the RA Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan asking to consider the inaction of the RA Ministry of Finance unlawful and instruct it to provide the Organization with the requested information. The complaint of the Organization was examined on May 5, 2015 at 4 pm. At the session, the Organization’s representative Arayik Zalyan introduced the administrative complaint, and then a Ministry of Finance official presented the Ministry’s position on the account that they had not avoided providing the information requested, but rather pointed to the venue where the information could be found. The RA Law on Freedom of Information reads that if the information mentioned in a written inquiry is published, the data on the means, place and terms of such publication shall be provided to the applicant within 5 days after receiving the inquiry. By its Decree of May 5, 2015, the Tax and Customs Agencies Appeal Commission found that the information to be provided by the Ministry of Finance was published information by its nature, and in its response letter the Ministry of Finance mentioned the means and place of the publication in question. However, according to Article 3 of the RA Law on Freedom of Information, publication shall mean “…provision and availability of information to the public in the press and by other mass media or the world wide web (the Internet) as well as through any other means as laid down by the law.” In this case, the wall of the customs office is neither the press, nor mass media, nor the Internet, and the RA MoF failed to point to the information requested in the means above. The HCA Vanadzor defends it position and intends to file another application with the Administrative Court.