The Diplomat
The Council for Transparency and Good Governance (CTBG) has condemned the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation to provide the list of jobs held by its labour staff abroad who are not subject to an agreement, as well as the maximum annual remuneration received in each position.
In a resolution to which Europa Press had access, the CTBG agrees with the complainant, refuting the arguments that had been offered by the department headed by José Manuel Albares for not providing all the information she had requested in relation to the external labour staff.
Specifically, in accordance with the Transparency Law, she had requested “the list of jobs (RPT) of the foreign staff without a collective labour agreement” of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as those who were in the same situation in the case of the Cervantes Institute, which depends on the same department. In addition, it had stressed that “the maximum annual remuneration of each post” should be included.
On 30 May, the Foreign Ministry responded to the request, sending a “list of posts with an indication of the code, labour category and organic unit of assignment”, according to the CTBC, while the Cervantes Institute did the same on 14 June.
After considering that “partial information” had been sent to her, as it did not include the annual remuneration, the applicant filed a complaint with the Transparency Council, which in turn passed it on to the Foreign Ministry.
In its response of 20 July, the Ministry argued that the information requested “must be understood to affect the protection of personal data” in accordance with the 2013 law, given that in order to access the information on remuneration “it would require the notification for the processing of allegations of more than 3,000 people, which would undoubtedly entail a paralysis and serious disruption to the normal functioning” of the Directorate General of the Foreign Service.
On the other hand, the Foreign Ministry argued in its defence that, according to the Foreign Action and Service Act of 2014, “it is the responsibility of the current Ministry of Finance and the Civil Service, after consulting with the ministerial departments with foreign labour personnel, to prepare a report on the situation, conditions and applicable regime of foreign labour personnel” and that it is also the responsibility of this department to “determine and update the salaries of foreign labour personnel in accordance with the specific circumstances of each country”.
The complainant then proceeded to refute these arguments, arguing that “the RPTs do not contain personal data” but rather “location, category/group, maximum number of posts, maximum annual remuneration and currency of situation” and that it is a public document that other ministries have previously provided “without any objection”.
In the end, the CTBG agreed with the complainant, considering that she was requesting information “whose public nature is clear”.
Likewise, in its resolution, it maintains that the allegations put forward by the Foreign Ministry “in order not to provide the maximum annual remuneration of each of the posts” and by saying that “the Treasury has the power to determine and update” them, “are not acceptable and cannot constitute an obstacle to the information being provided”.
Regarding the second of the arguments, it points out that regardless of the fact that it is the Treasury’s responsibility to “determine certain economic aspects of the RPT”, what has been requested is not the criteria for this decision but “the maximum remuneration of the posts and the divisions of situation, information which must form part of the employment relationships or other similar organisational instruments”.
Moreover, “the interested party at no time asks for the specific remuneration of each post, but rather for the maximum annual remuneration and the location currency of each post, data which, by their nature, cannot be linked to identified or identifiable natural persons”.
Therefore, the CTBG urges the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Instituto Cervantes to “proceed to provide the information on the RPTs requested in full”, including “the maximum annual remuneration and the currency of each post” within 10 working days to both the complainant and the council itself.
