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Parliamentary Inquiry in Montenegro – Oversight Tool Lacking Political Support

The constitutional provision for proposing and implementing parliamentary inquiries in Montenegro is scarcely ever applied. In the last ten years, this oversight tool has not been used, while the proposal for opening parliamentary inquiry was submitted only in two occasions from the adoption of the current Rules of Procedure of the Parliament, regulating the parliamentary inquires issue.

In Montenegro, the opening of parliamentary inquiries suffers from the lack of both the political will of parliamentary majority and the opposition’s confidence in its effectiveness. Furthermore, the opposition is not unanimous in using this tool.

Normative gaps in the current regulation of parliamentary inquiries in Montenegro are additionally overburdening the overall situation.

In implementing parliamentary inquires, the Inquiry Committee might be confronted with difficulties in reference to the data collection, due to: imprecisely defined investigative competences; inability to access classified information; absence of legal obligation of government officials, civil servants and other persons to be heard before the Committee, under the threat of imposing sanctions for the failure to respond and perjury.

Unlike Montenegro, opting for regulating the parliamentary inquiry issue by the Parliament’s Rules of Procedure, a vast majority of the EU countries have adopted an umbrella law, commonly the special Law on Parliamentary Inquiries.

The establishment of a special legal framework governing this oversight tool aims at its strengthening, as well as guaranteeing the absolute obligation of adhering to the legal provisions regulating this issue. The adoption of a special Law in Montenegro would result in regulating specific issues related to the scope of work and actions of the Inquiry Committee, as well as the penalty provisions, enabling adequate implementation of this tool in practice.

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New research: Secret Surveillance Measures in Criminal Procedure – Neglected Control

New research conducted by Institute Alternative “Secret Surveillance Measures in Criminal Procedure – Neglected Control” was presented on Wednesday, 4 April 2012 at a press conference.

This research is supported by the Parliament of Montenegro, through its Committee for the distribution of funds to NGOs.

It represents the second part of the project entitled Democratic and Civilian Control of the Application of Secret Surveillance Measures in Montenegrin Legislation and Practice – Possibilities and Limitations.

Most important findings of the analysis:

– Legal framework for the application of secret surveillance measures (SSM) in criminal procedure, through the new Criminal Procedure Code, has been mostly aligned with the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). Insight into call lists, not defined as an SSM in Montenegrin legislation but rather as an operative data-gathering and police authority during investigation, is not in line with the case-law of the ECtHR.

– Absence of practice of determining responsibility for illegal procedures, administrative and procedural shortcomings in the application of SSM, is a cause of concern. By enhancing communication and coordination between the Police Directorate and the National Security Agency, the number of individuals kept under SSM twice, should be reduced to a minimum.

– Although all levels of control have certain mechanisms of oversight of the SSM application at their disposal, they are all characterized by passivity in exercising their duties prescribed by law. Internal control is not performing its oversight duty, allegedly because the data are secret. Judicial inspectorates do not control prescribed record-keeping of SSM. Committee for political system, judiciary and administration, and the Committee for Security and Defense did not use their control mechanisms for overseeing the application of SSM in criminal procedure. Complaints mechanism is not developed, while the Ombudsman did not perform any controls of the application of SSM in criminal procedure.

– Availability of information is very limited, and the annual performance reports of the state institutions competent for applying the measures do not include information on SSM. In the last report submitted by the Tripartite Committee, responsible for gathering data in the field of corruption and organized crime, it is stated that ‘during 2011, SSM were approved for 113 individuals in 18 cases.’ However, the number of individuals processed and the number of legally enforced decisions based partly on the evidence gathered through the application of SSM, which would indicate the results achieved through this method, is not available.

– It is necessary to regulate the legal framework for insight into call lists more precisely; to allow the Internal Police Control to exercise continuous oversight of the application of SSM in criminal procedure; courts, prosecutorial authorities and the police should deliver special reports on the application of these measures to the Committee for Security and Defense.

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Strategy for Public Administration Reform – First Year of Implementation

Implementation of the Strategy for Public Administration Reform and the accompanying Action Plan has started a year ago. As a result of its regular research activity, Institute Alternative followed the implementation of this strategy and its action plan during this period.

In addition to modernization, rationalization and professionalization of the public administration system, the Strategy for Public Administration Reform recognized the need for strengthening the rule of law and enhancing the accountability of public administration; business environment; quality of public services and institutional stability and flexibility of the public administration system. These goals, as recognized in the Strategy, should be accompanied by increased transparency and ethical behavior in public administration, which would contribute to further integration of the country in the European administrative area.

However, in the hitherto implementation of the Strategy, numerous problems can be observed. Namely, although the Strategy foresees regular six-monthly reporting, this obligation has not been met. One year since the implementation of the Strategy began, not a single report on the implementation of the foreseen activities has been published.

The Council for regulatory reform and business environment improvement, a body responsible for coordinating the activities of this Strategy, held only two meetings since the adoption of this document without even discussing the relevant activities. Therefore, a special body, whose mission would be to coordinate the process of public administration reform, should be formed. Such a body already exists at the local level – Coordination Committee for Local Self-Government Reform.

Unclear division of responsibility and authority between the Interior Ministry and Finance Ministry in terms of key tasks for implementing the Strategy is one of the main problems.

What has been accomplished so far at the level of public administration reform in Montenegro? Everything that has been achieved in 2011 is a result of public administration’s involvement in meeting the seven key priorities of the European Commission which require high level of harmonization with the membership criteria. Therefore, within the framework of the Action Plan for fulfilling the recommendations of the European Commission, a set of new laws were adopted: Law on Public Administration, Law on Civil Servants and State Employees, Law on Territorial Organization of Montenegro and a Regulation on the organization and manner of work in the public administration which placed certain state agencies within the relevant ministries. Also, centralization of inspection surveillance is foreseen as well as the establishment of a single inspectorate which is a significant novelty compared to the previous legal framework according to which inspection surveillance was left to relevant line ministries. Directorate for Inspection Tasks will be operational as of May this year, while inspection tasks will be gradually brought under a single authority with the deadline set for the end of 2013.

Strategy for Development of Inter-Municipal Cooperation in Montenegro covering the period from 2011 to 2015 has been adopted. At the end of December, legal-institutional analysis of the public administration system has been adopted along with the proposal of future provisions aiming to identify problems in the administration functioning (in terms of human, material and technical resources).

In contrast to the already achieved goals, numerous tasks foreseen by the Action Plan for implementing the Strategy have not been fulfilled. Some of them include establishing obligatory training programs for certain categories of civil servants/state employees, enhancing human resources management through central personnel record-keeping, as well as regular assessment of civil servants and state employees’ performance.

At the very end, it is necessary to highlight the need to adopt the Law on Government in order to legally define the organization of the executive, rather than relying on regulations adopted by the government itself.

Having in mind the importance of public administration reform as an ‘umbrella’ for all other reforms in the country, it is extremely important to have a strictly defined institutional coordination of the process in order to avoid ‘poor communication’ and overlapping of authority between the Ministries of Finance and Interior, as well as greater authority of the Finance Ministry than foreseen by the Regulation on Public Administration Organization of Work.

In the forthcoming period, Institute Alternative will continue monitoring the public administration reform in Montenegro in line with principles operating in the European administration area, thereby contributing to the evaluation of the entire process which has been neglected at the government level.

Stevo MUK

President of the Management Board Institute Alternative

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Round Table: Challenges of Developing Combined Social Policy in Montenegro – Experience of Croatia

Institute Alternative organized a round table on the topic of “Challenges of Developing Combined Social Policy in Montenegro – Experience of Croatia”. The round table is a first step in implementing the project entitled ‘Challenges of Developing Combined Social Policy in Montenegro.’

The goal of this project is to stimulate the development of combined social policy with an emphasis on developing civil society as an important actor of social reforms and decentralization of the social security system.

Prof. dr. sc Gojko Bežovan, professor at the social policy department of the Law Faculty in Zagreb, addressed the round table by introducing the experience and results of the development of social policy in Croatia.

Prof. dr. sc Gojko Bežovan is also the president of the Center for development of NGOs – CERANEO. This think-tank works on gathering, analyzing and researching problems in the area of social policy, thereby stimulating innovative approach to their resolution.

Participants of the round table included representatives of the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, local self-government units, private and public institutions of social security, NGOs dealing with various social issues, UNDP and the Institute for Strategic Studies and Prognoses.

The current reform process in the social security system embraces the principles of developing social policy in general, which involve joint activities of all relevant social actors in Montenegro, their mutual cooperation and coordination, strengthening the role of local communities, privatization of social services, stimulating the development of social enterprises and engaging recipients of protective measures and social transfers, whose role in positive legislation is entirely passive.

The next phase of the project is research-based, aiming to provide an objective assessment of the level of cooperation established among all social policy actors in Montenegro, and to indicate current problems, as well as the possibilities of overcoming them. Participants of the round table gave their full support to the project and expressed their readiness to contribute to its implementation.

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Enhancing Public Administration Reform

Rationalization and modernization of the state administration must be one of the priorities in the subsequent process of accession to the EU. Last year, the process of state administration reform was characterized by the adoption of new laws. These new laws, such as the Law on Civil Servants and State Employees, are a precondition for the functioning of the state administration. However, the adoption of these laws is still insufficient to produce a genuine reorganization of the state administration apparatus in Montenegro.

In its annual progress reports, the European Commission regularly highlights the problem of an oversized administration, which is weak and politicized. Therefore, the impression is that, despite continuous reminders from Brussels, the lack of political will for providing an adequate answer to this challenge is still present in Montenegro.

While attempting to tackle the problem of an ‘oversized and dysfunctional administration’, the government of Montenegro, in its Public Administration Reform Strategy 2011 – 2016, set the adoption of European standards for employment as a strategic goal, which includes measures for reducing the number of employees with the accompanying social programs. However, the Strategy itself does not address the question of how the number of employees will be reduced without harming the efficiency of the administration. It is also worth noting that little progress has been made in the past year (since the adoption of the Strategy on 31 March 2011) in achieving this goal. An additional problem is reflected in the lack of qualified personnel, capable of dealing with greater obligations stemming from the process of European integration.

Hence, it is necessary to harmonize the performance and organization of the public administration in Montenegro with the principles operating in the framework of European administrative area. To achieve that, the system of personal advancement should be enhanced on the basis of performance. Furthermore, implementation of clear and transparent employment procedures should be strengthened. Since a credible administration is founded upon these principles, we may expect that all complex obligations, stemming from the ‘European agenda’, will have an impact on solidifying the political will, leading to real progress as regards de-politicization and rationalization of the public administration in Montenegro.

Jovana Marović
Research coordinator