Criticism of the Municipal Executive Committee in Kumla Municipality because the municipality’s intranet encouraged employees to challenge the principle of public access to official documents

Summary of the decision: A municipality’s intranet encouraged employees to, among other things, “challenge the principle of public access to official documents”. The Parliamentary Ombudsman finds this encouragement alarming and states that it may raise suspicions that the municipality deliberately attempted to restrict the constitutional right to access official documents and the right to avail oneself of the information therein. The Parliamentary Ombudsman takes a grave view of the formulation used on the intranet and criticises the Municipal Executive Committee for this.

According to the Parliamentary Ombudsman, there does not appear to have been any illicit purpose behind the encouragement. However, the Parliamentary Ombudsman reminds the municipality that the measures it takes must be constitutional and that the municipality is responsible for ensuring that its staff have the requisite knowledge and experience to correctly process a request for the disclosure of an official document.