Recurrent: AEAT / Ministry of Finance

Recurred resolution: R/1090/2024

In exercise of the right of access to public information, a request was submitted to the State Administration of Tax Administration of the Ministry of Finance, formulated in the terms shown in the background, requesting the amounts of productivity received by the officials of the AEAT Delegation of the province of Valencia in 2023, with the degree of detail specified in the request.

The Administration issued a decision denying access, considering the application of the limit set forth in article 14.1 (f) LTAIBG — which allows the restriction of access to information when this causes harm to the equality of the parties in judicial proceedings and effective judicial protection — which the claimant considers to be unmotivated. In the processing of claims in this procedure, the AEAT indicates that the claim against said resolution is extemporaneous because it has been filed outside the legally established period of one month.

The Council rejects the extemporaneous nature of the claim and therefore proceeds to address the merits of the issue raised, considering that it does not consider that the limit invoked by the Administration is met, since the requested information is of an administrative and non-procedural nature. Thus, it is not a question of information prepared for presentation in a judicial process, not even collected or prepared on the occasion of the filing of an appeal, but of economic information on the ordinary activity attributed to an organ of the Administration.

Furthermore, considering that this is public information according to the definition contemplated in Article 13 LTBG, and that its access must be decided according to the result that yields the weight required in Article 15.3 LTAIBG, in accordance with Interpretative Criterion 1/2015, of June 24, developed jointly by this Council and the Spanish Agency for Data Protection (AEPD), it concludes that, in relation to level 30, 29 and 28 positions (the latter whenever they are freely appointed) or equivalent, it is clear that the right of access to information on remuneration of public employees must prevail, without the express consent of the same.

In addition, the Council takes into consideration the particular circumstance that the applicant for the information is an official of the Delegation of the AEAT of Valencia, member of the Staff Board and trade union delegate, to determine that it is not necessary to articulate the hearing procedure provided for in Article 19.3 LTAIBG, in accordance with the doctrine established in the Judgment of the Supreme Court of 15 October 2020 (ECLI:TS:ES:3195:2020).

It also highlights the existence of an obvious public interest in knowing how public funds are distributed as variable remuneration to the specific workers of an organ, agency or entity, in order to assess whether there have been unjustified arbitrariness, abuse or discrimination and, ultimately, to be able to demand the corresponding accountability of a Public Administration in an area as essential to detect a good or bad functioning as is the management of public money in relation to the non-fixed remuneration of public employees.

Finally, it is clear that, since the right has been exercised by a workers’ representative, it is not necessary to articulate the hearing procedure provided for in articles 19.3 and 24.3 LTAIBG in accordance with the doctrine established in the Judgment of the Supreme Court of 15 October 2020 (ECLI:TS:ES:3195:2020).