After the Berset blackmail affair: the Commission wants to strengthen the right to view administrative emails

class=”sc-29f61514-0 icZBHN”>

In the summer of 2022, the “Tages-Anzeiger” reported that the Ministry of the Interior announced during a meeting with the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Information (Edöb) in December 2021 that it had closed the correspondence between Alain Berset’s employee Lukas Bruhin and the woman deleted. Berset tried to blackmail. ‘Weltwoche’ had previously reported email correspondence between Bruhin and the woman.

The parliamentary oversight committee subsequently investigated the matter. In the report published on Thursday, the Audit Committee of the Council of States (GPK-S) now demands clarification of the relevant provisions in the Public Information and Archiving Act, the parliamentary services have announced. Current federal government filing and filing requirements are not uniform.

The council is therefore of the opinion that the relationship between the provisions of the Archives Act (BGA) and the Public Information Act (BGÖ) requires clarification, as stated. Overall, the inspection rights of the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Information (Edöb) should be strengthened.

Extend retention period

In addition, the GPK-S calls on the Federal Council to investigate special measures regarding compliance with retention and archiving obligations for senior management employees who leave the federal government. The current retention period of four and a half months for electronic data of departing employees should be extended.

Finally, the GPK-S states that it cannot be assessed with certainty to what extent the untraceable emails existed and whether they may have been partially destroyed. However, the GS-EDI did not comply with its legal obligations under the BGÖ. (SDA)

Source:Blick