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Joint reaction of Association of Youth with Disabilities of Montenegro and Institute Alternative

The allegations of Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Welfare published in the article of Daily news „Pobjeda“ entitled “Equal Opportunities for all”, has challenged AYDM and Institute Alternative to once again argue the reasons why is necessary to make a new Proposal of the Strategy for Development of Social and Child Protection for the period 2013-2017.

In the introductory part of the text reads: “The Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare concluded on Monday a public discussion on a three-year strategies on development of social and child protection and on social protection of elderly people”. However, AYDM claims that the Ministry issued a public call for consultations which lasted for 15 days from the May 27th, when the public call was made. During the consultations, Ministry held just one round table, on June 4th in Podgorica, although the Working Group had agreed to hold a round table for the northern region of Montenegro, in Bijelo Polje. This situation along with the tight deadlines for consultations breached the practice of making consultation process fully transparent and accessible to all.

AYDM disagreed with the statement that the proposed Strategy is based on the norms and standards of international documents and conventions, since these documents have arised from serious and thorough analysis of the situation and needs, which certainly have dropped out during the drafting of the proposed Strategy.

Proposal of the Strategy does not contain a report on the impact of the previous Strategy and identifies neither problems nor results that have arisen during the implementation of the previous strategy.

IA submitted similar comments on the proposed Strategy to the Ministry, in which it concludes that long-term results of the social and child protection reform are not envisaged, especially when it comes to the development of social services. IA considers measures for achieving the specific goals inadequately explained and expected effects of their implementation unsubstantiated.

Also, it remains unclear how it is expected “from this strategic document to provide an adequate level of social and child protection, create equal opportunities for all citizens, prohibit social exclusion and discrimination,” when certain vulnerable groups (e.g. homeless) are not even mentioned in the document. In its comments, IA pointed out that the Strategy does not include the analysis aimed at establishing the records of homeless people. It does not provide separate measures which would improve the status of this population either.

The proposed Strategy states that the main deficiencies of the existing system, are primarily caused by:

a) the lack of indicators for identification of vulnerable and social groups and other subsets;

b) the lack of system for monitoring the needs of socially vulnerable groups as well as the lack of records of undertaken protection measures.

Apart from these indicators defined by the Proposal of a Strategy, there are no qualitative indicators for the monitoring of the Strategy’s implementation or information that any analysis to identify the needs of population is done, although this activity was included in the previous Strategy.

AYDM and IA believe that the Ministry should also especially pay attention to defining these indicators in order to meet the needs of the population and substantiate the claims that this document provides equal opportunities for all.

AYDM and IA consider that the statement of the Deputy Minister- that “strategy must be adopted as soon as possible“ – is not eligible if we bear in mind that the new Strategy should have been adopted by December 2012. In addition, we believe that aligning the strategy with the legal framework is not “just a formality“ as the Deputy Minister stated, regarding the fact that the proposed Strategy is completely based on the provisions of the Law from 2005. The long-term priorities in the field of social welfare are thus based on the provisions of the Law which is to be abolished soon. That questions the whole approach during the Strategy drafting process. Superficial approach during the Strategy drafting is also reflected by the fact that the deadlines for the implementation of the measures proposed in the action plan is utterly inconsistent with the terms provided in the new Law on Social and Child Protection.

According to the claims stated in this release, IA and AYDM once again urge the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare to make a new Proposal of the Strategy aligned with the new Law. If the Government adopts the current proposal as the new national strategic framework, it will undermine the true intentions of the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, to enhance social and child protection reform and improve the quality of life of the citizens of Montenegro, especially of vulnerable groups.

Marina VUJAČIĆ AYDM
Dragana RADOVIĆ, IA

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Press release: Recruitment and Promotion In State Administration Lacks Transparency

Not all the legal and institutional preconditions for the implementation of the new Law on Civil Servants and Employees are met, while the transparency of its application is also not satisfactory, Institute alternative (IA) argues.

On Monday, IA presented its first quarterly monitoring report on the Recruitment and Promotion in state bodies, in line with the new Law on Civil Servants and Employees, whose implementation was launched on January 1.
Until January 1, not all the legal preconditions for the implementation of the new Law were fulfilled. During the seventeen months transition period between entering into force and start of the Law’s implementation, only 4 out of 17 envisaged by-laws were adopted.Only three more acts were adopted by April 1.

“Delays in adoption of the acts for the implementation of the new Law had a negative impact on consistency of the application of the new rules regulating recruitment and promotion in state bodies”, Milena Janketic, one of the authors of the report, said.

She stressed that the Rulebook on the content and manner of keeping the Central Human Resources Record has not been adopted in the reporting period, while the lack of data within this information system was alarming.
The number of civil servants and state employees in the state administration bodies of Montenegro, defined by the Decree on Organization and Manner of Work of State Administration, according to the Central Human Resources Record, was 3739 as of April 1, although it is estimated that the total number of state employees and civil servants is approximately 10,500.

The data about the rest of 7,000 state administration’s employees are thus missing from the Central Human Resources Record, report states.

“Furthermore, only 6 bodies submitted the data about the grades of their employees into the Central Human Resources Record by April 1, 2013”, Janketic said, emphasizing that this represents an obstacle in the implementation of the Law, because the insight into the candidates skills should be partially based also on the insight into their grades.
Only 18 vacancies for job in state administration were announced in the reporting period. Still, excluding the appointment of heads of state administration bodies, only four candidates had gone through the newly prescribed procedures of testing the candidates’ skills, based on two separate vacancies.

Hence, the IA argues, it is too early for bringing conclusions about the consistency of the implementation of the Law’s new general rule, which prescribes candidates with the best abilities, expert and working skills, get job in state administration.

Yet, findings of the monitoring point to the lack of transparency in the implementation of the law.
“In other words, the Law is being interpreted in a way in which the realization of internal vacancies within one state body is being assigned to the state body itself instead to the Human Resources Management Authority which should have a central role in realization of all the vacancies”, Milena Milosevic, public policy researched in the IA, said.
Such practice raises doubt that, in cases of internal vacancies within state bodies, candidates’ abilities are not being tested at all.

Therefore, with an aim of enhancing the procedures for recruitment and promotion in state administration, the IA suggests the Human Resources Management Authority and state bodies to ensure the consistent application of legal provisions which clearly regulate competences of the authorities during realization of vacancies, including the procedures of testing candidates’ abilities.

At the Wednesday’s conference the IA announced that it will continue to monitor recruitment and promotion in state administration and to publish monitoring reports, with the support of Friedrich Ebert Fondation.

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Press Release: Proposed strategy – A step backwards

Proposed Strategy for development of Social and Child Protection relies on the abolished law and thus questions the long-term reform efforts in this area. Proposed Strategy reflects a superficial approach and the indifference of the state in defining long-term priorities in social and child protection.

In order to pinpoint certain inconsistencies, remind on the forgotten but planned measures and activities and give guidelines for further work on the new strategic framework, IA submitted comments on the proposed Strategy to the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs.

IA pointed out the mismatch of the legislative and strategic frameworks. Exception from the practice to first adopt a strategy and define long-term priorities, and then the Law as a concrete measure, makes even more meaningless the fact that the proposed strategy relies on outdated terminology and provisions of the Law from 2005. The Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, as the proponent of the Strategy, thus brings unnecessary confusion and raises doubts whether its true intention is to enhance the social welfare reform and improve the quality of life of the Montenegrin citizens, especially of vulnerable groups.

The role of the Institute for Social and Child Care, whose establishment is envisaged by the new Law on Social and Child protection is not sufficiently promoted in proposed Strategy as the future coordinating body for the development of social services network. Moreover, the proposed Strategy does not even acknowledge the social services as a special right in social and child protection system, although the emphasis of the reform is on of the development of non-institutional forms of protection.

Proposed measures to achieve specific objectives of the strategy are not adequately explained nor the expected effects of their implementation justified.

While justifying some of the proposed measures, proposed Strategy calls on expert analyses, which are not publicly available and the public is not even aware that they are carried out.

The deadlines for the implementation of the proposed measures in the action plan are completely incompatible with the deadlines for the preparation of the by-laws deriving from the new Law on Social and Child Protection.

Proposed Strategy for development of Social and Child Protection needs to be withdrawn in order to create the Strategy aligned with the objectives of the reform and based on the new legislation and deadlines provided by Law. As the exception from the practice to first adopt a strategy has already been made, then further extension of the deadline for the adoption of the Strategy would not cause any damage if the proponent has a genuine intention to enhance social and child welfare reform.

Dragana Radović
Policy Analyst

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What is to be done?

Stevo MukWith all due understanding of dissatisfaction with the negotiations between the government and opposition, now it is of utmost importance for the opposition to take a stance with regard to the constitutional changes, and to be more responsible than in the past while taking part in the drafting of the new electoral legislation.

The largest opposition formation should go back to the Parliament of Montenegro. Their boycott is harmful for the dynamics and quality of the Parliament’s work. Consequently, it has a negative impact to the quality of decisions made by MPs, such as appointments of the new members of the Senate of the State Audit Institution, debate on the bill of Law on Social and Child Protection, discussions on the reports of important state bodies and so on. With all due understanding of dissatisfaction with the negotiations between the government and opposition, now it is of utmost importance for the opposition to take a stance with regard to the constitutional changes, and to be more responsible than in the past while taking part in the drafting of the new electoral legislation. Contribution of the non-governmental organizations to this process shouldn’t be neglected this time in the manner it happened before.

***

We should think out the society’s response to the situation in which Mrs. Ranka Carapic, surrounded by other candidates, looks like Mother Teresa. We need to ensure that the list of candidates for the Supreme State Prosecutor is extended by the names of experienced professionals, people with integrity capable of running the state prosecution independently and of earning support of the required parliamentary majority. This is not an issue only attached to the appointment of the Supreme State Prosecutor, but a decade long practice when it comes to the selection of top posts for which the candidates apply following the public vacancy procedures. This is an issue whose qualitative changes are dependent neither on constitutional changes nor on the determining the necessary majority required for the appointment of judicial post. It is thus important for us to tackle this problem as soon as possible ahead of appointment, not only of the Supreme State Prosecutor, but also of other important posts.

***

I expect opposition MPs, or, better to day, all the members of the Committee for Defense and Security, to assure us that they do an honest and good job. Alleged “official-state secret” cannot be a justification or alibi for poor information and reasoning of the discussion’s results about the reports, as it was the case with the discussion of the report of National Security Agency. Spinning of the irrelevant topics ahead of debate, during the debate and after the debate about the report raised doubt in their good will and intention. Statements about the small number of organized criminal groups in Montenegro can be interpreted only as an offense against the people’s intelligence or a joke..

***

Parliament, as a legislative branch of power, must take a serious stance about the current crisis of the public procurement in health sector (procurement of medicines and medical equipment). I suggest to Committee for Economy, Finance and Budget to, together with the Committee For Health, Work and Social Care, organize a consultative hearing of responsible stake-holders with an aim of detecting the best legal solutions and practices in the field which would prevent similar crisis to occur again in the near future. Annually, in this field is spent almost fifty million euro. The main beneficiaries are patient, sick people, citizens! The duty of the society and the state is ensuring the minimal conditions for health care during the entire year. Preventing of the people in need to become a victim of law, bureaucracy and corruption, should be our duty… We must prevent shortage of medicines to occur again in 2014.

***

Action plans, which are preconditions for opening of Chapters 23 and 24 must address the key remarks of the European Commission, and take into account the recommendations of non-governmental organizations and other interested parties. Communication between the chief negotiator and Parliament of Montenegro in that respect is poor. Government, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, and chief negotiator must ensure that all the competent committees built confidence in the work of negotiation teams, give their contribution and oversee the process. Committee for European Integration, Committee for Political System, Administration and Judiciary, Committee for Human Rights, and Committee for Anti-Corruption must be more proactive while seeking its role in the negotiations and give contribution to the final version of action plans for chapters 23 and 24.

***

In draft action plans, Government of Montenegro offers contours of new institutions for fight against organized crime and corruption. On one hand, it envisages establishment of anti-.corruption agency which should replace several institutions which mainly monitor the co-called political corruption. On the other hand, the repressive role would be undertaken by the new independent prosecutor based on the Croatian model. The timeline of the draft action plans implies that these institutions won’t be fully functional before 2015 or 2016. In the meantime, Government must answer the question: Which concrete steps will Montenegro make and which results deliver in the fight against corruption and organized crime can promise in the period before the newly envisaged institutions become operational? How many efficient prosecutorial investigations will be undertaken in the fields, which Government itself recognized as highly susceptible to corruption? For example, in the field of public procurement, concessions, public-private partnerships, local administrations and privatizations, among the ministers and directors of public companies etc. The answer to that question and solid pile of evidence gathered by the prosecution, which would be difficult to dispute by the first next verdict, will determine the fate of talks about these chapters.

Stevo Muk
President of the Managing Board

The article was originally published in the “Forum” section of the daily “Vijesti”

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Closing training of the 2013 Public Policy School

On Saturday, June 1, the final training of the 2013 Public Policy School was held. The topic was “Effective policy papers writing” and it was lead by Zlatko Vujović.

The topic (keyword):

Workshop aimed to give participants the knowledge and resources required to develop the skill of writing effective policy proposals in order to communicate on clear and concise view of practical politics. In this regard, the workshop participants learned how to:

  • Understand how practical policy proposals can support the decision-making process based on evidences,
  • Gain insight into the perspective of a practical policy proposal, which is the center of designing research, analysis and writing policy papers:
  • Analyze and reflect on strategies to increase the likelihood of achieving the desired effect when writing and using policy proposals;
  • Gain insight into the structure and purpose of advocacy to be achieved by the two basic types of proposals for a policy: policy studies and concise draft policy;
  • Share experiences in developing and writing policy proposals with other workshop participants and trainers;
  • Deepen understanding through the analysis of relevant case studies and actual policy papers.

The nature of this training is to be practical and to be adapted to the needs of participants. The training methodology is based on active participation, with emphasis on the analysis of authentic examples of policy proposals as well as on knowledge and skills applicability in the context in which participants write proposals. These are some additional methodological approaches on which training was built:

  • The atmosphere in which the participant is the center of attention, which is interactive;
  • Learning by doing;
  • Work in pairs and small groups to establish interaction between participants;
  • Participants have the role of informed and responsible adult learners, and trainers are facilitators in this process.

The training was carried out based on materials created by the LGI initiative.The main motive of initiatives Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative (LGI) in capacity building in practical policy proposals writing is to increase the impact of policy researches in the decision-making process by providing assistance to researchers and analysts to communicate their advices in a way that can actually be used in the practical world of policy making. Therefore, the workshop also aimed to:

Promote self-development of writing policy proposal skills, using as a source of LGI’s manual “Writing effective proposals for public policy”, “Writing Effective Public Policy Papers” (Young and Quinn, 2002).

Establish a collaborative atmosphere among the workshop’s participants.

Presenter’s short biography:

Zlatko Vujovic is a graduate of the Law Faculty with an average score of 8.51. He earned his master’s degree at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Podgorica, postgraduate studies “International relations” with an average score of 9.32 and defended his master’s thesis on “Electoral systems of the European Union – a comparative analysis of the electoral system for national parliaments and the European Parliament” with grade A. Currently, he is enrolled at a PhD program: “Comparative Politics, Department of Comparative Public Policy” at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Zagreb.

Since 2004 worked as an associate at the Law Faculty in Podgorica, and since 2006 at Faculty of Political Sciences on courses: Election and party systems, electoral systems, party systems, as well as on Electoral systems in Europe, and Comparative European party systems.

He is one of founders and president of NGO / think-tank Centre for Monitoring Centre. He is being occasionally hired as a consultant and trainer on issues of organizational development. He is a licensed LGI trainer.

The Public Policy school project is supported by the Commission for the allocation of gambling revenue and managed by Institute alternative in collaboration with the Centre for Research and Monitoring (CEMI).

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First meeting of the Anti-Corruption Advisory body held

U okviru projekta “On Friday, May 31, the initial meeting of the anti-corruption advisory body within the project “Corruption at the local level – zero tolerance” was held. Atendees were representatives of the partners in this project (Center for Civic Education (CCE), Institute Alternative (IA), NGO Bonum, NGO Nada), representatives of 14 municipalities (Podgorica, Cetinje, Niksic, Crikvenica, Herceg Novi , Kotor, Tivat, Budva, Bar, Rozaje, Pljevlja Mojkovac, Kolasin, Pluzine), as well as staff of the Union of Municipalities of Montenegro and the Ministry of Interior.

One of the Advisory body’s main tasks is to contribute to the monitoring of the project’s implementation and facilitate realization where necessary.

The project is supported by the European Union through the EU Delegation to Montenegro under the IPA 2011th. The aim is to strengthen the implementation of anti-corruption policies at the local level, and to increase awareness of the importance of effective anti-corruption mechanisms and procedures in 14 Montenegrin municipalities.

One of the activities is introduction of the telephone line (020 665 112) to report cases of corruption at the local level.