Recurrent: Ministry of Finance and Public Service
Recurred resolution: R/0106/2023
In exercise of its right of access to public information, a request for access was submitted to the Ministry of Finance and Public Service, to obtain information on the number of people who have declared having made monetary donations or who have paid membership fees from 2015 to 2021, broken down by party, political formation or group of electors.
The requested Ministry decided not to admit the request on the basis of the provisions of article 18.1.e) LTAIBG, as it considered it abusive since, in its opinion, if it was heeded, given the large number of political parties, federations and coalitions to which their request would have to be transferred so that they could make allegations, affected their management and the public service entrusted to them. Likewise, it alleges the reserved nature of the tax data in accordance with articles 34 and 95 of the General Tax Law.
The Council considers the complaint as, on the one hand, it is difficult to appreciate the abusive nature of the application since the circumstances provided for in the Civil Code to qualify a conduct as an abuse of law (posing a risk to third parties, being contrary to rules, customs and good faith, or requiring treatment that paralyses the rest of the management of the daily activity of the subjects obliged) are not present. Characteristic, that of abusive, which must concur cumulatively with the lack of justification of the purpose of the law, which is also not appreciated, since it cannot be denied that the information requested is related to the purpose of transparency, understood as a fundamental axis of any political action, insofar as it constitutes one of the forms of financing of political parties and similar entities.
With regard to the allegation that these data are reserved under the General Tax Law, it must be taken into consideration that the justification of confidentiality must be projected on the specific information requested; in this case, the number of donations and affiliation fees received by political parties, political formations and groups of electors, without it having been proven which interests or rights would be safeguarded by the non-disclosure of a mere numerical data.