The government has asked the Office of the State Attorney's Office to take the commissioner's office to court over violation of legislation on public interest as a result of Pirc Musar's insistence that the Finance Ministry disclose data on deals with banks.

Pirc Musar has twice ruled in favour of Martin Vrecko, a citizen who requested data on deals conducted by the ministry with 17 banks between February 2009 and February 2010.

Vrecko is convinced that the state secured EUR 1bn worth of aid for banks during the credit crunch in the form of state deposits. He has quizzed the ministry about the interest rates for these deposits and the criteria used.

The ministry has rejected the request, arguing that while it is not against disclosing data on the average maturity in interest rates of the contracts, it cannot disclose the details of individual deals.

It claims that this would mean disclosing the business secrets of banks and also undermine the negotiating position of the state in conducting future deals.

Pirc Musar sees this differently, arguing that there is no room for business secrets when taxpayers' money is involved.

Saying that disclosing the details of the deals is the only way to secure transparency, Pirc Musar claims that her decision does not undermine public interest but in fact protects it.

According to Finance Minister Franc Krizanic, the state presently has over EUR 3bn worth of fixed deposits at banks.