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Our suggestions for this year’s agenda of the Committee for economy, budget and finance

Committee on Economy, Finance and Budget is currently formulating its agenda for 2013. year. The competencies of this Committee intertwine with our work in the research area Public finance. We addressed the Chair of the Committee with a set of proposals and suggestions that we believe should be included in the this year’s Agenda:

Consultative hearing on the implementation of public procurement procedures;
Consultative hearing in connection with preparation / adoption of the legal framework regulating concessions and public-private partnerships;
Presentation of guidelines for effective parliamentary oversight of public procurement in the framework of IA’s project “Strengthening parliamentary control of the public procurement”;
Review of Government’s quarterly reports on fulfilling the obligations from the Action Plan for implementation of recommendations of the State Audit Institution;
Consideration of the report on the work of the State Audit Institution at a special session and separately from the audit report on the final account of the budget;
Work on the Protocol of Cooperation between the State Audit Institution and the Parliament, in accordance with the SAI’s Strategic Development Plan SAI (Possibly, by holding a consultative hearing);
Consultative hearing on “Constitutional and legal framework of SAI’s financial independence”;
Consultative hearing on implementation of internal financial control in the public sector (PIFC) and opportunities for greater involvement of the Parliament in overseeing this process.

We hope that some of these proposals will make their way to the 2013 Agenda of the Committee on Economy, Finance and Budget.

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State Administration Reform in Montenegro – Between ambitious plans and real possibilities

State administration reform has been ongoing for more than a decade in Montenegro. During this period, two strategies were adopted, legal and institutional frameworks for management of the reform have been changed, as well as the mere structure of the state apparatus. However, there has not been much progress. State administration is still, according to the remarks of European Commission, highly politicized, cumbersome, and with limited capacities. As such, it represents obstacle to the country’s faster integration into the EU. Precisely this strategic goal of European integration poses the need for an accelerated professionalization, depoliticization and modernization of the state staff and its enabling to respond to the challenges of Montenegro’s accession negotiations with the EU.

The systemic reform of state administration in Montenegro should thus be intensified in the upcoming period. Institute Alternative has prepared an overview of the so far state administration reform in the analysis “State Administration Reform in Montenegro: Between Ambitious Plans and Real Possibilities”. The analysis is a result of the one year long work. The intention of the authors is to give an overview of all the elements of the state administration reform in Montenegro at one place. This comprehensive task is structured in a way to include all segments of the reform as they are defined in Public administration Reform Strategy for the period 2011-2016, and these are: civil service system, administrative procedures, quality of legal acts and strategic documents, public finances. The analysis also gives an overview of the so far strategic and institutional support to the reform, its monitoring and evaluation. Work at these chapters ensured indicating approximate annual costs of the current state administration system. Apart from the critical overview of the deficiencies in implementation of the reform, each chapter contains recommendations for overcoming those deficiencies.

Institute conducted a public opinion survey in 2012 in cooperation with Ipsos Strategic Marketing, at the representative sample of 840 adult Montenegrins. Their attitudes about the work of state administration have been surveyed. Data have been collected during the face-to-face field research in the respondents’ households. People assessed the quality of work of state administration at the ten levels scale. Higher grade implied higher level of quality. The average grade by which Montenegrins assess the quality of work of the state administration is 4,5 and it is lower than in the previous surveys. This trend and perceptions of respondents suggest that the public confidence in work of the state institutions is decreasing.

Final observations within the analysis deal with principles of state administration functioning within the European administrative space.

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Press release: Deployment to peacekeeping missions beyond the reach of the Parliament

The government decides independently on the participation of members of civil defense, police and government employees in peacekeeping missions and other activities abroad. The Parliament is completely excluded from this process. Committee for Security and Defense is neither consulted regarding deployment nor informed about the participation of these state representatives in peacekeeping missions.

At the yesterday’s session, the Government adopted a decision to send two police officers to the UN peacekeeping mission in Cyprus. Representatives of the Police Directorate are present in the mission in Cyprus since 2009. During the 2012, police officers were sent to the ISAF mission in Afghanistan as well.

In contrast to the deployment of Army, the Government does not need the consent of the Parliament when deployng the representatives of police, civil defense and public administration bodies to peacekeeping missions.

Parliametnary Committee for Security and Defense is not consulted when these decision are being made, nor has it so far been informed about the activities of the representatives of the Police Directorate in the peacekeeping missions. This is particularly worrying since the Law on parliamentary oversight in the area of security and defense explicitly states the duty of the Committee to review these reports, and therefore, the obligation of competent institutions to submit them regularly.

Law governing this area was adopted in 2008 (full name: the Law on the use of units of the Army of Montenegro in the international forces and the participation of members of civil defense, police and employees in state administration in peacekeeping missions and other activities abroad), It provides that the Parliament must approve the deployment of Army representatives to peacekeeping missions. When it comes to the participation of members of civil protection and others to peacekeeping missions, the Parliament has no jurisdiction. The executive is given the exclusive and unlimited authority to decide on this important issue.

We believe that it is needed to urgently initiate amendments to the Law on the use of units of the Army of Montenegro in the international force and the participation of members of civil protection (…) to make the approval of the Parliament required when deploying the members of civil defense, police and employees in the civil administration to missions abroad. Solution that is currently in force is outdated and made obsolete through the adoption of the Law on parliamentary oversight. Furthermore, it represents an obstacle to the further development of parliamentary oversight in the area ofsecurity and defense.

Marko Sošić
Policy Analyst

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(No) Freedom to Choose

Stevo MukIt is time for people to make decisions from which they will benefit in the long run. Relatively small and short-term benefits which are often attractive to the part of the ruling party voters, causes more damage than good in the long run. Extravagance, incompetence, corruption, nepotism, violations of the law, organized and unorganized crime, abuses, are the key reasons for the economy collapse and poverty. These are permanent characteristics of the state and society that never had democratic shift of power.

Recordings and documents published recently show the network of state- party officials, activists, policemen, informers, those who control people’s money, personal data, polling evidence, identification cards, election commissions, local communities and all the resources ensuring further rule

Recordings and documents published recently show that open claims of a number of opposition political parties and NGOs openly and the shy ones of the international organizations are true. Evidences are now available to: international organizations, embassies, ambassadors, friends of Montenegro, Djukanovic’s friends, all those who were impressed, amazed, who encouraged and advised…

Montenegrin people now have the right to ask the European Union whether it is on the side of democracy and freedom of choice or on the side of one party. With strong and unequivocal demand for effective and comprehensive investigation on “transcripts affair”, the European Union would send a clear message that it is on the side of Montenegrin people. Montenegrins now have the right to form their decision about the country’s European integration according to the EU’s response to the affair.

Hiding behind an alleged lack of evidence is not an option anymore. These evidences are foundation for a broad and comprehensive investigation. The evidences are clear for all but the Supreme State Prosecutor. She is busy coordinating the action against unsuitable NGOs, so there’s no time left to effectively investigate abuses of free, democratic election.

I guess it is clear to all that this will not last forever. Everything has a beginning and an end. Every day we are getting closer to the moment when the monopoly of one party will become a political history. For Djukanovic, it will not be enough to rely solely on good fortune, especially because there is not much money in the bag – in that bag over there for those who are looking forward to every new election. In that bag there is not enough even for the regular payments of the civil servants.

Because of this, the DPS leader has to choose between radicalization and liberalization, intensification and expansion of freedom. If he chooses the first option, he will reign long but his political end would be very uncertain and dangerous. If he decides to spread freedom, then he will give up the monopoly of power and prepare for at least one term in the opposition benches. Meanwhile, the traditional government and president from the opposition could help create the conditions for the process of democratic transition completion. Therefore, if Miodrag Lekic wins the election, it could turn out more significant and ultimately more useful for Djukanovic and his future political path, than continuation of insatiable desire for complete domination.

Djukanovic’s coalition partners, especially SDP, and the Bosniak Party could help him to choose the right political path. These parties should have in mind that the DPS mechanisms will turn on them first time around. It is therefore important for them to condemn the findings of the “transcripts affair”, instead of calling them an incident and turning their heads away. Lekic’s victory in the election could only strengthen their political position, allow them to remain dignified, and call things by their real name.

Stevo Muk

President of the Managing Board

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

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Good Governance in South-East Europe and Turkey – Sharing the Anti-Corruption Experience

Opening Conference of the SELDI Network (South-East Europe for leadership development and integrity) was held in Zagreb on 4 and 5 March 2013. Institute Alternative is a member of the SELDI network and actively participates with CSOs from nine countries in the region in the implementation of activities within the project “Civil Society for Good Governance and Anti-Corruption in Southeast Europe: Capacity Building for Monitoring, Advocacy and Awareness Raising.” Project is supported by the European Union.

Research Coordinator at the Institute Alternative, Jovana Marović presented at a conference in Zagreb current activities of state authorities and civil society in the fight against corruption in Montenegro under the topic “The European Union’s Perspective of the Fight Against Corruption – the Case of Montenegro.” Her presentation is available here.

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Risks Of Corruption In Montenegrin Sports

Harmful effects of corruption in sports are twofold. Apart from the financial aspect, and that is the danger of irrational and illegal waste of public resources, emergence of corruption in sports, given its popularity and public interest for its promotion, can have a negative impact on the whole society.

At international level, the issues of integrity in sports and fight against corruption in the field, only recently started having a more comprehensive treatment. In the European Union (EU), the first step in that direction was the adoption of the White Paper on Sport in 2007. This document recognized key threats to the contemporary sports in the member states, among them being corruption and money laundering. The EU, based on previously conducted analyses, undertook the whole range of other activities aimed at increasing integrity in sports – the efforts of European Council to adopt conclusions on match-fixing in late 2012 being the last such activity in a row.

In Montenegro, however, activities on prevention and fight against corruption in sports are at early stage. The Government’s strategic documents insufficiently recognize the need for preventing and minimizing the corruption risks in the area, despite the certain allegations and indications about irregularities in the work of certain sport clubs and about sports betting-related frauds. Given the internationally recognized and potential “national” risks in the field, the aim of the paper is thus to pinpoint the means of advancing the fight against corruption in Montenegrin sports.