Case Summary and Outcome

The Supreme Court of Costa Rica ordered the disclosure of all the public officers’ salaries, from 1990 to 2013. The information was requested from the petitioner to the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (Caja Costarricense del Seguro Social). The Court considered that the data involved budgetary aspects and management of public resources that transcended the particular interest of the public official and became information of general interest. Considering the difficulties and the magnitude of the process, the Court gave the Fund one month to inform the plaintiff how long would it take to deliver the information and whether it would entail costs for him.

Facts

Mr. Alejandro Fernández requested from the Costa Rican Social Security Fund information regarding every public servant’s salary, from 1990 (or the oldest year available) to 2013, all in spreadsheets, disaggregated by year, institution, and branch of the government (Executive, Judicial, Legislative, autonomous institutions, or other). The public entity required him to demonstrate a public interest in receiving the requested data and address the request to the Board of Directors. 

The plaintiff forwarded the request to the Board with the clarifications. The Board of Directors responded that the information was, indeed, publicly available, but that it was necessary to conduct a study to determine whether it was technical and administratively possible to fully comply with the request. In this sense, it announced that part of the information, particularly the oldest documents (everything prior to March 2001), could not be digitized. Moreover, the Costa Rican Social Security Fund held that the process to comply with the petitioner’s request was of such magnitude that it could compromise the performance of other services. Thus, it stated that the disclosure of the information should be conditioned to a timeline determined by the entity and that the petitioner should bear the cost of the process.

Fernández lodged a claim (recurso de amparo) arguing that the authority’s access to information denial breached his rights. 

Decision Overview

The Supreme Court of Costa Rica had to define whether the State had the obligation to systematize and deliver information related to the salaries of public officials, with the identification of their names and positions.

The Court recalled that the right of access to public information is enshrined in the Constitution, and multiple international instruments. It highlighted that “the salary earned by public officials or public servants is of a public nature and general interest, as it involves the proper control and management of public funds,” [para. 67] therefore data regarding the salaries of public officials “transcend[s] the interest of its owner.” This statement, which promotes the realization of the principle of maximum disclosure, was supported by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights’ jurisprudence and by judgements from other countries’ constitutional courts, who had also recognized the importance of the right of access to information to ensure transparency in state administration. In this sense, the Court indicated that “the objective of the publicity of the aforementioned data is to make the control of public finances and their transparency possible” [para. 105].

Additionally, the Court held that providing the names, positions, and salaries of public servants was an excellent measure to fight nepotism. It affirmed that every citizen has the right to know not only what are public funds being invested in, but also in whom.

As for the process of digitization of old information, the Court indicated that the government should make progressive efforts to reach a level where all data is publicly available to society through technological means, in a complete, updated, and organized manner. In the Court’s opinion, this work would allow to enhance the right of access to information and make effective the exercise of other fundamental rights. The Court considered that since the right of access to information has been permeated by new technologies, States must, to the extent of their possibilities, facilitate the electronic availability of information. 

However, the Court also acknowledged that the digitization of information depends on financial and technological capacities. Specifically, the Court noted that the “ideal scenario indicated above requires a progressive adaptation according to the budgetary, technological and human resources possibilities of each Administration; it would not be acceptable to leave neglected other public services because of the digitization of all public information or the delivery of it in a certain format” [para. 121].

The Court also found that asking the petitioner to redirect his request to another unit within the same public entity unduly restricted the right of access to information, because that is the government’s responsibility, not the citizen’s. Moreover, it affirmed that information held by the State must be delivered, except for limited exceptions, without the need to prove a direct interest or personal impact.

In conclusion, the Court ordered the Costa Rican Social Security Fund to deliver the names and salaries of public officials from 1990 to 2013. However, the Court did not establish a specific deadline since, in its opinion, the petitioner’s request was very broad. Consequently, it ordered the institution to inform the petitioner, within one month, how much time would be required to systematize and obtain the requested data, and the approximate cost to be incurred by the interested party.

For Judge Hernández López, the Court was not competent to address this issue because Law 8968 created an office in charge of the resolution of these matters. Additionally, she considered that the defendant entity was not obliged to deliver the requested information, since its collection would distract it from the provision of the public services for which it was instituted.