SUMMARIES OF SELECTED STATEMENTS C. MINISTRY OF FINANCE The following statements on cases concluded in 2014 have been published: 2014-17. REFUSAL TO GIVE ACCESS TO INFORMATION ABOUT CONTRACTUAL PARTNER’S FISCAL POSITION ON RECEIVING PROFIT A journalist complained to the Ombudsman that the Ministry of Finance had excluded information in a document concerning the sale by the Danish State of shares in the publicly owned energy company DONG Energy A/S to the U.S. company Goldman Sachs with reference to, among other things, section 30(ii) of the Access to Public Administration Files Act. The document contained information regarding the possible fiscal position of Goldman Sachs regarding profits received from DONG Energy A/S. In the Ministry’s judgment, this was information pertaining to the operating and business procedures of DONG Energy A/S, particularly the company’s thoughts regarding a negotiating partner’s position and possible deliberations. In the Ombudsman’s opinion, it was on the existing basis not indisputable that an assessment from DONG Energy A/S regarding the likely fiscal position of Goldman Sachs with regard to payment of profits from DONG Energy A/S after the conclusion of the contract was information pertaining to the operating and business procedures or the like of DONG Energy A/S. In addition, the Ministry of Finance had not specifically stated the nature of the alleged financial loss for DONG Energy A/S. Furthermore, the Ministry had not considered what it entailed that when the access request was made, the contract with Goldman Sachs had been approved by Parliament’s Financial Committee. Nor had the Ministry considered the journalist’s argument that the question of the payment record by Goldman Sachs regarding taxation of profits had been very much debated in the press. It was the Ombudsman’s overall opinion that the conditions for exempting the information from access according to the provision in section 30(ii) of the Access to Public Administration Files Act were not fulfilled on the present basis. 119