IA’s Research Coordinator, Jovana Marovic, participated in a meeting with the new rapporteurs (Nursuna Memecan from Turkey and Kimmo Sasi from Finland) of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) for Montenegro, 8 July 2013. The focus of the meeting was at the following topics: judiciary, electoral law, fight against corruption and public administration reform. Beside the representative of the Institute Alternative, the meeting was attended by representatives of the Centre for Civic Education, MANS, the Civic Alliance and the Youth Initiative for Human Rights.
Corruption at the local level – consultative trainings in 14 municipalities
Within the project “Corruption at the local level – zero tolerance”, in the period from 3 until 25 July, consultative trainings will be organized in 14 municipalities. They are aimed at representatives of local NGOs, local administration and local MPs from committees dealing with budget and finance and the topics covered fall into in the sphere of the best EU anti-corruption programs and strategies.
Project covers 14 municipalities: Podgorica, Cetinje, Niksic, Danilovgrad, Herceg Novi, Kotor, Tivat, Budva, Bar, Rozaje, Pljevlja, Mojkovac, Kolasin and Pluzine.
During meetings in the municipalities, special attention is given to the following topics:
- Public-private partnerships – accountability, transparency and efficiency; Corruption and public procurement in Montenegro; Combating corruption in employment at the local level – Jovana Marović, IA
- Operation and capabilities of the local parliaments – Damir Nikočević, CGO
- Control of local budgets – Marko Sošić, IA
- Political corruption: definition and causes, political corruption and the rule of law – Boris Maric, CGO
“Corruption at the local level – zero tolerance!” is a project funded by the European Union through the EU Delegation to Montenegro in the framework of IPA 2011, and implemented by the Center for Civic Education (CCE), in cooperation with IA, as well as NGO Bonum from Pljevlja and NGO Nada from Herceg Novi.
Protest over rejection of our initiative
We express strong protest regarding the decision of the Committee on Health, Labor and Social Welfare to reject our initiative for organizing a consultative hearing on public procurement in the health sector. Its incomprehensible that Committee which has health care in its jurisdiction was not interested to learn more about the problems in the public procurement sector, because its functionality is a precondition for the functioning of the health system as well.We ask DPS’ MP’s, who voted against the motion (Zoran Jelić, Halil Duković, Zorica Kovačević and Zoran Srzentić) to explain the reasons for voting against the initiative to the public, citizens and especially to patients.
There was nothing more natural than for the Committee to initiate a debate on this important issue in existing situation.
We thank the MP Janko Vučinić from DF who formally proposed the initiative, as well as to MPs: Neven Gošović and Andrija Popovic, who voted for the initiative.
We regret because of the absence of the opposition members (Novica Stanić, Radovan Asanović) and an MP from SDP (Izet Bralić).
We expect from the Committee on Economics, Finance and Budget, to put this issue on the next session’s agenda and return public trust in the Parliament.
We would like to remind the public that we sought conducting of a joint consultation hearing of responsible actors in the field of public procurement of medicines, medical devices and equipment, by the Committee on Economy, Finance and Budget along with Committee on Health, Labor and Social Welfare, in order to find the best legal solutions and practices to prevent the continuation and repetition of the current public procurement crisis in this sector.
Public procurement in the health sector over the last and current year were marked with numerous problems.
The case of insulin supply as well as the procurement of medicines and other medical supplies in the past year, which are accompanied by non-compliance with statutory deadlines for appeal, canceling the tender, and several months long procedure that caused the shortage of drugs, cutting a decision of the State Commission for Supervision of Public Procurement, pointed the need for more precise legal regulation and better functioning of institutions in the public procurement system.
The importance of this issue is emphasized by the fact that in for public procurement in the health sector is being spent about fifty million and that the ultimate beneficiaries of these goods (drugs) are patients. We are bound, as a society and the state to provide them with the minimum requirements for treatment during the year. We owe it to prevent people in need to be victims of the law, incompetence, corruption and bureaucracy. It is necessary to prevent repeating of the shortage of medicines in 2014.
The Parliament of Montenegro must contribute to the solution of the current public procurement crisis in the health sector (purchase of medicines, medical supplies and equipment). Joint work and activities of the Committee on Economy, Finance and Budget, Committee on Health, Labor and Social Welfare (as committees in charge for procurement and health care) should be able to find a proper solution for overcoming the problems in this area.
Stevo Muk
President of the Managing Board
Victims and volunteers
“Following weeks, that is, the following month, is crucial for further progress of European integration”, Milutin Simovic, an MP, said in his question addressed to the prime minister.
Yet, the way this is perceived by the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), it was visible in the answer, by which Djukanovic openly and directly transferred the responsibility for future remarks of European Commission and opening of chapters 23 and 24 to the Parliament of Montenegro, or, more precisely, to the parliamentary opposition and Democratic Front, which is “selectively” boycotting the Parliament.
Knowing the skillfulness of the ruling party, and the past mistakes of the opposition leaders, I wouldn’t be surprised if this time the opposition representatives managed to create an image of themselves as the main impediments to the constitutional changes and thus label themselves as the brakes-men of European integration.
However, the truth is that the findings of the European Commission and opening of the Chapters 23 and 24 will largely depend on the efficient investigation of corruption and organized crime, with emphasis on highly positioned civil servants and public officials. Also, remarks will depend on the outcome of the indictments which were positively assessed in the earlier reports as acceleration of the fight against corruption and organized crime.
As far as I know, and I do carefully follow official and media reports, Montenegro doesn’t have anything to be proud of from October by now.
Various state, political and other structures are also aware of that and hence , more or less often, the following questions are being asked in this hot summer days: “Who is the next victim?” or “Who is the next volunteer?”.
Images are already familiar: arrests in dawn, black uniforms, TV cameras, serious faces of police chiefs and ministers, victorious show-ups, vows into the political will and European integration.
It appears that there is not enough skunk and independent groups to fill the poor statistics in fight against drug trafficking. Comparative data about the seizures of different types of narcotics stand on its own.
Since last year, when the relevant vice-prime minister admitted that there was no progress in the fight against corruption, via the statement that we “lack the well thought strategy for fight against corruption”, up to today – no progress has been made. I don’t understand who are the ten or twenty doctors identified by the minister in charge as corrupting our health system.
Who the victim, who is a volunteer. With volunteers, we are at least experienced. They are fake victims, but only to the first next progress report, and then – starting all over again.
Yet, earlier enlargements made European Commission more cautious.
The history says this: In the race for the EU accession, in 2006 and 2006, Romania was awarded for introduction of the strictest rules for publishing of the property cards of its officials. European Commission praised their national department for anti-corruption because of launching proceedings against several high profile politicians for corruption. These, widely publicized cases, were seen as a proof that the country was advancing in the fight against corruption and helped the decision on membership to be brought one year earlier than it was expected. However, two years after, none of these cases had been prosecuted to an end. Most them has been rejected or hushed up, while the institution supposed to investigate the property of the officials was not functional for a long time after the country entered the EU.
In Bulgaria, the decrease of number of murders among the mafia groups, none of which has been resolved, was regarded as a key to the acceleration of the country’s European integration. However, it was later published that the Ministry of Interior was in touch with the chiefs of organized criminal gangs to ensure the temporary breaks of the fights among different gangs.
The European officials and local public will thus have to pay more attention to the concrete cases and their epilogues and follow them more objectively.
The Skerovic case appears to be the attempt of media-driven political promotion – attempt with short-term goals and dubious intentions. The case, however, turned from the attempt of creating the impression of fierce reaction of the state into its opposite, additionally compromising the already poor credibility of the institutions and “proponents” of the radical break with the crime. This was the case from which all the actors should and must draw some lessons.
Yet, the opposition MPs in the inquiry committee also know that it is not easy to be judge or a prosecutor. As it stands, it is more likely that this inquiry committee will be remembered by the anecdote about the air condition than by the concrete results.
Stevo Muk
President of IA’s Managing Board
text originally published in the Forum section of the daily newspaper Vijesti
US Embassy supports IA’s project
Institute Alternative is one of 12 organizations whose project is supported by the U.S. Embassy in Montenegro under the “Criminal Justice Civil Society Program” (CJCSP). Grants were formally awarded to civil society representatives by the U.S. Ambassador to Montenegro Sue K. Brown.
Our project is entitled “Strengthening inter-institutional cooperation in the criminal justice system” and focuses on research of four components relating to the criminal law:
(i) comparative models of institutional and legal framework for the fight against corruption and organized crime;
(ii) budget planning of the police and prosecutors;
(iii) the contents and dynamics of making the annual reports of the State Prosecutor’s Office and the Ministry of Interior – Police Administration;
(iv) cooperation between local prosecutors and local police in two selected municipalities.
The grants fall under the “Criminal Justice Civil Society Program” a program funded by the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), administered by East West Management Institute and World ORT, Inc.
IA at DGAP’s Train Alumni Conference
Jovana Marović, IA’s research coordinator and our policy analyst Marko Sošić, participated in the TRAIN programme (Think Tanks Providing Research and Advice through Interaction and Networking) Alumni Conference, organized by the German Council for Foreign Relations (DGAP) in Berlin from 27 to 30 June.
The purpose of the conference was a gathering of TRAIN alumni in order to share their experiences, info on new projects and planning of future activities (maintenance of a network of alumni).
During the conference, Jovana had a presentation in the panel “Building coalitions – cooperation at the national and cross-border level”, regarding the participation of NGO representatives in the Montenegro’s EU accession negotiation structure and about the coalition of NGOs monitoring negotiations in the framework of Chapter 23.
In the framework of the panel “Transparency, good governance and the fight against corruption,” Marko presented our project “Monitoring of local budgets” and our portal with visualization of local budgets, mojgrad.me