Debate on the Report of the Commission for Control of Public Procurements

Our research coordinator, Jovana Marović, participated at the 70th meeting of the Committee on Economy, Finance and Budget. At this session, in accordance with the Article 142 of the Law on Public Procurement, the Committee considered the 2013 Performance Report of the State Commission for Supervision of Public Procurement Procedure. Jovana pointed out that the State Commission cannot be analyzed separately from the systemic problems in the area of public procurements related to the poor control over the implementation of procedures and public procurement contracts, lack of accountability for violations of legal provision, and lack of transparency. She noted that the proposed amendments to the Law on Public Procurement, which should enter parliamentary procedure soon, contain a number of problematic solutions, especially when it comes to the work of the State Commission. Therefore, these amendments should be improved through amendment procedure in the Parliament.

Challenges of Cooperation between Civil Society and the Government in the Western Balkans

Research Coordinator at Institute Alternative Jovana Marović participated in the preparation of the analysis “Challenges of Cooperation between Civil Society and the Government in the Western Balkans”. The analysis was created within the framework of the project “Thinking for Governance”, aimed at the exchange of experience between the Visegrad countries (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary) and the civil society organizations from the Western Balkans on the role of these organizations in the negotiation process under Chapters 23 and 24. The analysis includes recommendations for improvement of the process of judicial reform, fight against corruption, human rights, and cooperation between civil society and state authorities in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, Macedonia and Serbia. Alongside Jovana, Marija Vuksanović, from Centre for Democracy and Human Rights, and Vlado Dedović, from Centre for Monitoring and Research, participated in the preparation of the part of the analysis related to Montenegro.

Publication can be downloaded here >

What will the President talk about at the OGP summit at the UN?

Montenegro cannot boast with fulfilling obligations within Open Government Partnership, therefore it is not clear what will the President of Montenegro speak about at the upcoming meeting of this Initiative, which will be held on September 24 this year.

Nine Heads of State will speak at the United Nations in New York at the high-level event organized on the occasion of celebrating the third year of the initiative Open Government Partnership (OGP). Among the speakers are Barack Obama, the President of the United States, and Filip Vujanović, the President of Montenegro.

However, Montenegro does not have anything to boast with at the conference, because it is late with fulfillment of every obligation under this Initiative and since mid-2013 there were no activities in drafting the Action Plan which would aim to improve conditions in the areas promoted by this Initiative. This is the obligation of all member states of the Initiative.

Since the deadline for preparing the final version of the Second Action Plan for all member states was June 15, 2014, and for the beginning of implementation of the new AP was July 1, 2014, and Montenegro has not even begun drafting the Action Plan – we wonder what the President will say at the conference and how he will justify the Government’s failure to fulfill obligations and its general disinterest in OGP.

Member states of the Initiative are required to develop action plans that promote principles of transparency, accountability, new technology and innovation development, through several months’ consultation process involving multiple stakeholders and mandatory active participation of citizens and civil society. Today, OGP brings together 64 countries of the world, while Montenegro became a member in 2011 by adopting the First Action Plan. The importance of the Initiative is best illustrated by the presence of the President Obama at the OGP event on the sidelines of the UN’s General Assembly.

At the 64th session held on 10 April 2014, the Government has adopted the conclusion that puts the Cabinet of Prime Minister in charge of appointing “as soon as possible” a new coordinator who will form a new Operating Team of the Open Government Partnership. However, the public still does not know who the new coordinator is.

Furthermore, by the Government Conclusion, the Office for Cooperation with NGOs is tasked to commence activities on the selection of NGO representatives in the Operating Team in accordance with the Strategy of Cooperation of the Government of Montenegro and Non-Governmental Organizations, at the latest within seven days of appointment of a new coordinator. This activity has not yet begun, either. The delay in the implementation of these conclusions, among other things, prevented further work on the preparation of the new Action Plan.

It is necessary to appoint a coordinator of the Operating Team as soon as possible, as well as other members of the OT, including government and non-governmental organizations representatives. It is a recommendation of Institute Alternative to include representatives of the Montenegrin Employers Federation and the Association of Municipalities of Montenegro in the OT, in accordance with the principles of the Initiative related to inclusion of all segments of society in policy-making and building stronger connections between citizens and government. Additionally, we recommend allocating budget funds for the implementation of the Action Plan which will be the measure of the actual Government commitment to contribute to the realization of the objectives of the Initiative through conducting specific activities.

Dina Bajramspahić

Public Policy Researcher

Announcement: Seminar on police integrity

Announcement: Seminar “Priorities and responsibilities in fostering police integrity in Montenegro” – September 25th 2014

Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Mission to Montenegro, in close cooperation with the Ministry of Interior, the Parliament of Montenegro and Institute Alternative, are organising seminar on police integrity on September 25th to offer all stakeholders and partners a platform for reflection and dialogue about the achievements, the current challenges and the way forward to further strengthen and maintain police integrity in Montenegro.

Take a look at the Agenda of the event here.

Message from the NATO summit: Intensified and focused talks with Montenegro

Commentary for BIRN on prospects of Montenegro’s membership in NATO after the NATO summit in Wales, held on September 4-5, 2014.

The burning issues in Montenegro still remain the rule of law and the necessity of building integrity institutions in combating corruption and organized crime. Alongside these issues, the reform of the security and intelligence sector has also been set as a serious, and not only declarative condition for receiving the invitation for NATO membership and we should take advantage of this integration process. However, it is necessary that the NATO specifically formulates the mandatory outcomes in this area, in order for the following year to be used for the activities of the Government and the judiciary in this regard.

One should not have any doubts whether the decision on the invitation to join NATO is a political decision, which, among other things, is a reflection of the geopolitical situation – as confirmed by all previous waves of enlargement, during which countries of varying degrees of reform of the system of defense and security were accepted. Let me point out to the examples of Albania and Croatia, bearing in mind that the latter was accepted with Sanader as the Prime Minister at the time when the reform of the Croatian intelligence sector was not completed.

Additionally, one needs to be realistic about the level of implemented reforms required for the membership to NATO, because, unfortunately, the level that meets NATO’s criteria cannot and must not be satisfactory for citizens of Montenegro. Security and defense sector reforms implemented in the framework of the MAP were indeed dynamic, but the nature of the reforms NATO is focused on is more concentrated on the functionality of the system and synchronization with other NATO member states, i.e. interoperability, rather than the internal accountability, transparency and ideological neutrality. And those are precisely the problems of our security and defense sector.

In other words, I do not believe that the key reason for postponing the invitation for membership was dissatisfaction with the level of implemented reforms since the requirements are not that demanding and the sector in question has rather small capacities to be considered problematic. On the other hand, Montenegro’s sincerity and commitment to the Euro-Atlantic family needs to be retested and confirmed, keeping in mind the relations with Russia, as well as slightly less than a half of the Montenegrin population that opposes membership to NATO.

Dina Bajramspahić

Public Policy Researcher

Press release: Deputy chairman of the Committee for Security and Defence must be appointed

Parliamentary opposition does not have a representative in the National Security Council, after having failed to appoint a deputy chairman of the Committee for Security and Defense from its own lines for over five years.

The Law on the Basis of the Intelligence and Security Sector prescribes the composition of the National Security Council. Among others, it comprises also the chair and deputy chairman of the Committee for Security and Defense. However, at the yesterday’s session, the Government adopted a decision on the appointment of the Council members, which did not include the deputy chairman of the Committee for Security and Defense, but only the chairman.

Council for National Security has, albeit insufficiently regulated, important responsibilities for coordination of intelligence and security sector, improving the exchange of information between departments and policy formulation in this area.

In accordance with the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament, Deputy Chairman of the Committee for Defense And Security is elected from the ranks of the opposition political parties. However, the opposition is failing to reach an agreement on this issue since 2009 and the Committee is working without a Deputy Chairman for over five years now.

The position of the deputy chairman is very important, bearing in mind the competences of the Committee in the field of democratic and civilian control of the security and defense sector. The position bears additional responsibility to initiate a proactive use of control mechanisms behalf of the opposition, to monitor the state authorities of the sector which, by their nature, are prone to abuse because of the repressive powers at their disposal.

Opposition is giving very harsh assessments of the reforms of the security sector and defense that, and the fact is that this sector is still burdened by a number of unresolved issues. It is therefore necessary to have a greater participation of the Committee on Security and Defense in creating a better framework for the functioning of institutions of the sector and frequent application of the parliamentary oversight, especially when it comes to control and consultative hearings, visits to institutions, requests for information, surveillance measures of secret surveillance, etc.

We commend the provision of the Law on the Basis of the Intelligence and Security Sector that introduces an obligation for the National Security Council to report to the Parliament (Committee for Security and Defense) every two months. This established parliamentary oversight over the work of the Council and honors the principles of separation and balance of power.

Dina BAJRAMSPAHIĆ
Researcher

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