Office of the commissioner for fundamental rights of hungary

A decision made in an administrative proceeding conducted on the issuance of a security guard license caused an impropriety – the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights exposed in his report. Dr. Ákos Kozma established that the legal ground for the decision closing the proceeding conducted in an individual case by the Mohács Police Department and the reason for terminating the proceeding were not justified, and that the Police Department had not taken into consideration the provisions of the Code of General Administrative Procedure (hereinafter: “Ákr.”), and had not provided the possibility to appeal against its terminating order. The Ombudsman initiated at the Head of the Baranya County Police Headquarters that it review the proceeding and the resulting decision as a supervisory organ, and that it take the necessary measures for issuing the license.

The complainant requested the prolongation of his security guard license at the Mohács Police Department (hereinafter: “Police Department”) on the basis of the qualification he had earlier obtained, in the possession of which he had previously worked as a police officer. However, the Police Department terminated the proceeding by an order with reference to the lack of the presentation of school certificates. When requesting the issuing of the license in question, the client must prove his/her school qualification or special qualification by a certificate. In the meantime, the complainant tried to obtain a copy of his school certificate, but according to the Police Department, the assumed legal successor of the complainant’s one-time school, the Police Secondary School of Adyliget did not make out a regular copy of the school certificate despite the fact that the complainant had attached to his request a photocopy of the report card issued by the School for Deputy Police Officers, guarded in the personal archives of the licensing authority. 

In order to shed light on the circumstances, the Ombudsman requested information from the Minister of Interior. In his reply, the Minister mentioned the fact that according to the available documents, instead of school certificates in today’s sense of the word, the one-time school had issued report cards to certify the completion of the training programme. The documents referred to are still available at the complainant’s former employer, the Police Department, i.e. the current licensing authority, which had issued a security guard license for the complainant on earlier occasions in light of the above.

In his report on case No. AJB-1037/2021, Dr. Ákos Kozma established that in the case at hand, it is not possible to issue a copy of the school certificate, for the complainant’s school certificate is still available, but it is not in the possession of the person having acquired the qualification, but is with the organ to which the former educational institution had sent it at the time of the document’s issuing, and which organ was obliged to safeguard the report card in the complainant’s personal file. 

The Commissioner for Fundamental Rights concluded in his inquiry that upon assessing the request for the prolongation of the security guard license, the Police Department disregarded the provision of the “Ákr.” according to which no data contained in a public register laid down in law may be requested from the client. In fact, the police keeps a public register of the operating licenses and cards issued, as well as of the data necessary to certify the conditions for their issuing. The data serving as the basis for the issuing of the complainant’s earlier cards, hence his original report card, are contained in the authority’s public register laid down in law.
 
Dr. Ákos Kozma initiated at the Head of the Baranya County Police Headquarters that acting as a supervisory organ, it review the proceeding and the resulting decision of the Mohács Police Department, and that it take the necessary measures for issuing the license.
 
For the report, please click on the following link: AJB-1037/2021.