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Good practices in citizens’ participation in the local budgetary process

IA’s researcher, Marko Sošić, participated at the round table “Good practices of citizen participation in the budget process at the local level”, organized by the European Movement in Serbia, in Belgrade, on 21 June. At the roundtable, the research paper entitled “Citizen participation in the budget process at the local level,” whose authors Zvonko Brnjas and Milica Radovanovic Dumonjić was presented.

As part of the roundtable, whose participants were representatives of local governments of Serbia and NGOs dealing with issues related to local finance, Marko spoke on “Citizen involvement in the budget process at the local level – the experience of Montenegro.” During the presentation, there were words about our new web site, mojgrad.me, with a visualization of data related to local budgets, which was prepared in the framework of the project “Monitoring of local budgets in Montenegro.”

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Recruitment and Promotion In State Administration – First Quarterly Report

Key findings of the report:

Start of the implementation of the new Law on Civil Servants and State Employees (LSCEE) was marked by the failure of authorities to meet all the legal and institutional preconditions for successful application of this act. Only four of thirteen envisaged by-laws were adopted during the 17 months long transition period, which marks the time between entering into force of the Law and launching of its implementation. Between January 1, 2013 and April 1, 2013, which is a period covered by our first quarterly report on the recruitment and promotion in state bodies, only three additional necessary by-laws were brought.

By April 1, the Rulebook on content and manner of keeping the Central Human Resources Record has not been adopted, although this record is a main precondition of the successful human resources management in the state administration. Data about near seven thousand of state administration’s employees have not been submitted to this information system yet, although it should contain the basic information about all civil servants and state employees in Montenegro. In general, capacities of Human Resources Management Authority, which is in charge of keeping the Central Human Resources Record, are not satisfactory, especially with respect to the training of staff to implement new procedures testing candidates’ abilities to perform tasks of the state administration job.

During the first three months of the implementation of the LSCEE, a total number of 18 vacancies for state administration jobs were announced. However, apart from the selection of heads of state administration bodies, only four candidates have gone through the newly regulated procedures of testing and evaluating candidates’ abilities, following the two separate vacancy notices. Since in both cases the final ranking list consisted of only one candidate, who subsequently got the job, it is too early to bring conclusions about the extent to which the new Law encouraged establishment of the merit based system in state administration. More precisely, it is to early to determine consistency of the application of the new general rule that the candidates with the highest ranking should be given a job position .

Yet, findings indicate that the implementation of the LSCEE lacks transparency. One body rejected to state the name and surname of the selected candidate, under the excuse of protecting his or hers personal data, although the Law on Free access to Information envisages obligation of all bodies to publish the list of its servants and employees, along with their positions. Furthermore, the competence of conducting internal notices within the state body was assigned to the state body itself, contrary to legal provisions which gave the Human Resources Management Authority a central role in conducting all the vacancy advertisements and notices.

With an aim of enhancing recruitment and promotion in state administration, it is thus necessary to finalize the legal framework for application of the new rules. Human Resources Management Authority and state bodies should ensure the consistent implementation of the provisions which clearly regulate the competences for conducting the vacancy notices and advertisements. All state bodies should regularly update and publish on their websites the lists of all their servants and employees along with their job positions, and thus ensure the transparency and easier monitoring of recruitment and promotion in state administration.

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Third Regional Training on investigating police corruption

Our researchers, Marko Sošić and Dina Bajramspahić participated in the third training on investigating corruption in the police forces organized by the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF). The topic was: “Evaluation of Research results” and it gathered representatives of civil society organizations dealing with security issues in the Western Balkans.

The workshop was held in Sofia (Bulgaria), June 13-14 and it was hosted by the Bulgarian Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD).

Some of the topics that were elaborated through 8 sessions:

  • Evaluation instruments: Risk Assessment (risk assessment for corruption)
  • Comparative practice: tackling corruption at the Romanian Ministry of Interior;
  • Case study as a methodological approach;
  • Evaluation of anti-corruption strategies and how to apply best practices in order to improve the Police Integrity;
  • Corruption prevention;
  • Investigating corruption at border crossings;
  • Corruption risks in public procurement for the police;
  • Challenges in investigating police corruption in the Western Balkans.

In addition to the capacity building, through this project DCAF provided mentorship in analysis of police corruption development to the civil society organizations participating in the program.

The Institute alternative research results on the effects of the Government of Montenegro strategic activities in tackling corruption within the police will be published by August 31.

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Montenegrin citizenship en route to the EU

Citizenship in Montenegro is defined exclusively as the legal link between the individual and the state, and it does not entail any ethnic affiliation.

The 2008 Montenegrin Citizenship Act, which has been amended first in 2010 and twice in 2011, posits this country’s citizenship policy, which is – compared to the neighbouring countries – a rather restrictive one. This restrictiveness is a direct outcome of Montenegro’s political history after the fall of Yugoslavia. While it is a prerogative of the sovereign state to regulate the matter of inclusion and exclusion, there are a number of counts on which the legal and implementation aspects of the 2008 Montenegrin Citizenship Act could be improved.

Some of the points, presented in this analysis, may be required in the context of broader human rights standards required in the process of accession to the European Union. Other points, and especially the facilitated access to citizenship to the socially vulnerable or marginalised groups should be considered by the Montenegrin authorities on humanitarian and/or compassionate grounds.

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Press release: Parliament must be more active in the negotiations

The agreement between the Parliament and the Government should as soon as possible define the importance of continuous dialogue and coordinated action of the two branches of power in the negotiations on Montenegro’s membership in the European Union.

Since defining the Parliament’s role in the European integration process was delayed for two years, and in this regard, working group within the parliament has been working for some time now without any progress on defining the Resolution, so this obligation became even higher priority. Resolution must precisely determine role of the Committee on European integration towards informing the public about the European integration process; gathering of civil society organizations, interest groups, and representatives of all branches of power related to issuing guidelines for progress in the negotiations and consensus on important issues regarding this process; follow up of the Government’s Communication Strategy implementation.

In addition to the Committee on European Integration, important role of other committees in the negotiation process, shouldn’t be forgotten (seven committees involved in the process of checking the conformity of national legislation with the EU acquis). Therefore, parliamentary committees that showed interest should be enabled to consider negotiating positions and discuss important issues in the negotiations process.

Finally, monitoring of the Government’s activities can be strengthened by Committee’s quarterly reports on the action plans implementation and negotiation progress. As a reminder, this practice existed when considering the (monthly) reports on the implementation of the Action Plan for Monitoring Implementation of Recommendations from the European Commission.

Jovana MAROVIĆ
Research Coordinator