Round table: Do we need a Law on Parliament?
New publication: Local parliaments in the fight against corruption
Our new research points to a number of problems that stand in the way of effective control of municipal budgets by local parliaments. In cooperation with our partners from the Center for Civic Education, we prepared a study „The role of the local parliaments in the fight against corruption“, which explains the current state of affairs and provides directions for the strengthening of its role. to the fact that the current, and that the possible role of councilors fighting corruption.
The publication has paid special attention to the process of adopting the local budget and character of the debate on the annual accounts of the city council, in which we pointed out the limitations and problems in this part of their work.
In short, we conclude that there are shortcomings in the legal framework, poor practices, lack of initiative and poor performance of local MPs, which together make up that budget monitoring is weak and ineffective.
As things currently stand, the local MPs have significant competencies, but lack influence when it comes to control of local budgets.
Some of the obstacles to the effective oversight of the budget are:
- short deadlines for the consideration of the budget,
- status of local MPs, with their position not being professionalized,
- lack of capacities for budget analysis,
- lack of interest in using the information provided by state audit,
- lack of connection between local parliaments and the internal audit,
numerous problems in the way that the commercial audit of the final accounts is done.
In this publication, you can read more about each of these issues, as well as the position of local MPs, conflict of interest, relation with the local executive branch (Mayor), the adoption of planning documents and opportunities for citizen participation in decision-making at the local level.
The publication was prepared within the project “Corruption at the local level – Zero Tolerance”, conducted by the Centre for Civic Education (CCE), in cooperation with the Institute Alternative, with the support of the European Union through the EU Delegation to Montenegro IPA 2011 and the Norwegian Royal Embassy.
Round table: Do we need a Law on the Parliament?
“There are fundamental problems when it comes to precise defining of the relation between branches of power, but also in terms of further improvement of the oversight role of the Parliament in relation to the work of the Executive.”
When it comes to defining the relation between branches of power, developing a complete legal framework that would allow precise regulation of the jurisdiction of each one of them is persistently being delayed in Montenegro. This refers to the Law on Parliament, as well as the Law on Government. Regulating the work of the Executive by law and not by rules of procedure or by-laws, as was the case so far, could alongside adopting the Law on Parliament establish the conditions necessary for a more adequate implementation of the “checks and balances“ principle.
The Parliament of Montenegro needs to further strengthen its supervisory function in relation to the work of the Executive and there are many open questions in this regard. Some of them relate to the need to regulate more precisely the institutes of parliamentary question and parliamentary inquiry, to the lack of procedure for deliberating on motions submitted by the interested parties, as well as to the lack of compulsory reporting by the institutions on the implementation of conclusions of the Parliament as a general rule and not just upon request of the competent committee.
It is evident that regulating these issues demands their urgent improvement. The first step in this direction is the establishment of a working group in the Parliament, which would thoroughly address all aspects of strengthening the position and the role of the Parliament in the Montenegrin system of power. Consultations with stakeholders should begin in the early stage of work of the working group.
Institute Alternative organized the roundtable “Do we need the Law on Parliament?” precisely with the goal of opening up the question of regulating jurisdiction, organization and work of the Parliament; joint consideration by the stakeholders of the possibilities which the Law on Parliament could bring in that regard; and determining to what extent would the Law improve the position of the Parliament in the Montenegrin political system. The roundtable was attended by the representatives of all MPs’ clubs of the Parliament of Montenegro, civil society, as well as guests from the region – representatives of the Parliaments of Serbia and Macedonia.
This event was organized within the project “Analytical monitoring of the oversight function of the Parliament“, which is implemented by Institute Alternative, with the support of the Open Society Foundations – Think Tank Fund from Budapest.
Jovana Marović
Research Coordinator
IA at the control hearing on the electricity deal
Stevo Muk, president of IA’s Managing Board, participated in the control hearing of the parliamentary Committee for Economy, Budget and Finance regarding the implementation of the agreement between the Government of Montenegro and A2A company. Other invited participants were Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Policy and Financial System Vujica Lazović, Minister of Economy, Vladimir Kavarić and representatives of Elektroprivreda Crne Gore AD Nikšić (EPCG), national energy company, Srđan Kovačević and Stefan Pastoria.
Selling of the shares of EPCG and cession of rights management company A2A has had a significant impact on the pricing of electricity. In this context, the important point is the expectation of A2A in terms of price increase for electricity rates and “obligations” of the Government and Regulatory Agency repeatedly communicated to the public.
Stevo highlighted a number of issues of importance for the discussion and suggested topic of public interest to the Committee members:
- fulfillment of performance indicators,
- methodology for calculating the cost of electricity and decisions of Regulatory Agency for Energy (RAE),
- how the decisions are made in the Board of Directors of EPCG in which four out of seven members are from the Government, and in this context, approving multimillion contracts between the EPCG and A2A,
- realization of the investment plan and the fate of EPCG funds in the accounts of commercial banks.
Stevo suggested the importance of rationalizing the costs of human resources in EPCG. He also pointed to the possibility of arbitrage between the A2A and the Government for Government’s alleged inability to collect claims (receivables) from Aluminum Combine (KAP) in the bankruptcy proceedings.
The interest of Institute alternative for this topic has continuously been guided by the need to protect public interest, the interests of electricity consumers, citizens and legal entities, especially in the process of setting the price of electricity and RAE’s decisions. IA’s engagement is the fruit of research related to the policy and practice of realizing public-private partnerships, as well as accountability and transparency in public companies.
New report: Municipalities in the fight against corruption
Through participation against corruption – anticorruption mechanisms at the local level
