SEE 2020 Strategy and the fight against corruption

Citizens should know that the crime does not pay off

Priorities in the fight against corruption derived from the Strategy South-East Europe 2020 (SEE 2020) in Montenegro and countries of the region are far from achieved, it was assessed at the conference organised today by Institute alternative (IA).

The conference “Against corruption – for Montenegro’s Growth!” was organised with the support of Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) within the project “Governance for Montenegro’s Growth – It Depends On Us!”. The project aims to contribute to the promotion of the Strategy, focusing on its horizontal pillar “Governance for Growth”, emphasising the issues such as fight against corruption, judiciary reform and good governance.

Jovana Marović, Research coordinator at IA has used the example of establishing Agency for the prevention of corruption to explain what are the priorities of SEE 2020 related to the rule of law and capacity building of the institutions whose main task is fight against corruption.

“The citizens were deprived of some important information that have been recommended and condition for the appointment of the director and members of the Council of the Agency,” Marović said, stressing that this institution will not be operational until January 1, 2016, when it is envisaged to start its mandate.

As far as the capacity of these institution, there still have not been any vacancies announced for employees who will deal with new responsibilities, she added. National Action plan for the implementation of the SEE 2020 Strategy in 2014 and 2015 is focused on the reporting on the progress made within the Chapter 23 (Judiciary and Fundamental Rights) and Chapter 24 (Justice, Freedom and Security), establishing the Agency for the prevention of corruption, Law on lobbying and Law on Special Prosecutor’s Office.

Marijana Laković Drašković, Head of Working group for the Chapter 23 in the negotiations with the EU has referred to the establishment of the anti-corruption institutional framework in Montenegro as well as to the results of the Government achieved in this area.

“I would like to conclude my speech with the words of Dirk Lange, who said that year 2014 was the year of legislation, 2015 was year of institutions, and that 2016 should be the year of results”, Laković Drašković said.

Đurđina Nina Ivanović, Deputy Chief State Prosecutor has referred to the results made by the Prosecutor’s Office when it comes to the initiating important criminal proceedings in very short period of time. “The Prosecutor’s Office need support and cooperation with all parts of society. If there is no support, we cannot move forward in establishing the rule of law”, Ivanović said.

Jasna Panjeta, Program and Outreach Officer at Regional Anti-corruption Initiative (RAI), the coordinator of the dimension fight against corruption within the Governance for Growth, stressed the importance of the SEE 2020 Strategy for the exchange of regional experience, which is, according to her, primarily political process lead by the RCC.

She has presented three strategic orientations of RAI, which are essential for the implementation of SEE 2020 Strategy. Those are analysis of the legislation from the perspective of corruption, i.e. mapping the loopholes susceptible to corruption, as well as the exchange of best practices in developing integrity plans within the institutions. Protection of the whistleblowers is also the significant field of activities of RAI, while work on conflict of interest and declaration of assets of public officials is something which, in the opinion of the Ms Panjeta, has the strongest regional perspective.

“It is important to have in mind that the borders do not represent the barriers for the conflict of interest”, she added.

Nataša Bošković, Special prosecutor for corruption and organized crime, has particularly emphasized the adoption of the Law on confiscation of proceeds of criminal activities is as important for the completion of the legislative framework for the fight against corruption. “Confiscation of property is often a greater punishment than the condemnation,” she added. “Crime does not pay off – that is the message that special state prosecutor’s office wants to convey to all citizens.”

Dragana Pešić, from the Association of Prosecutors and Deputy Public Prosecutors of Serbia, emphasized the importance of the professional association as a mechanism to protect prosecutors and to encourage them to resist the pressures at work.

SEE 2020 Strategy also puts emphasis on professional development and training of prosecutors, while the professional associations represent important partners in the implementation of national objectives related to the judicial reform and fight against corruption.

Dina Bajramspahić, Public policy researcher at IA, said that steps taken so far by the Chief Special Prosecutor and results achieved are encouraging. Special Prosecutor’s Office composed of 8 prosecutors has formed 384 cases and launched 7 investigations.

However, she said that the special prosecutors should openly admit that most of the material they are now building cases upon were already there, in the former Department of the Special Prosecutor’s Office.

“No matter how willing they are to fulfill their demanding role, within the current uncompleted institutional framework and without the Special Police unit, they could not have achieved this much,” Bajramspahić added, who started her speech with the key recommendation that, without establishing a fair assessment and progress and objective measurement of the professional performance in the State Prosecution, sustainable results cannot be expected.

Second panel held within the conference was dedicated to the civil society recommendations in determining the priorities in the fight against corruption on the regional level.

Aleksandar Jovanoski, Program coordinator from the European Policy Institute (EPI) from Skopje has pointed out the deep political crisis in his country as well as the institutional and normative framework, which is similar to Montenegrin when it comes to the Special Prosecutor’s Office, but unlike other countries, the Whistleblower Protection Law was adopted.

Ana Novaković, Executive director of the Center for Development of NGOs has referred to the whistleblower’s protection in the region, pointing out the lack of understanding of these issues by the citizens.

“People still equate whistleblowers with spies,” Novaković said, adding that further decisions and policy making in this area should be based on research on how much citizens are interested in reporting corruption.

Boris Marić, Senior legal adviser at the Center for Civic Education, from the perspective of the civil sector pointed out the importance of linking anti-corruption reforms within the Governance for Growth f with Smart growth, the second pillar SEE 2020 Strategy, which involves stimulating growth based on knowledge.

“Every second citizen of Montenegro believe that the corruption is present in higher education,” Marić explained.

Miloš Đinđić, Researcher at the Center for European Policy from Belgrade, has referred to the goals of th SEE 2020 Strategy and Governance for Growth pillar which point out the necessity of the audit and the control of public spending. “Public property management in Serbia is inefficient and the state is managing arbitrarily. Budget users are spending more than it was planned”, he added.

The participants of the event concluded that the cross-sector networking is necessary, i.e. to establish the operational relations between similar strategies and processes on the regional level.

Videos from the first part of conference held today can be seen below:

Panel discussion is organized within the project “Governance for Growth – It Depends On Us!” which is being implemented by Institute alternative with funding by the Regional Cooperation Council under implementation of RCC’s South East Europe 2020 Strategy. The views expressed during the event can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the Regional Cooperation Council.

Conference announcement: “Against corruption: for Montenegro’s Growth!”

Within the project ”Governance for Montenegro’s Growth: It Depends On Us!”, which is implemented with funding by the Regional Cooperation Council under implementation of RCC’s South East Europe 2020 Strategy, Institute alternative is organising a conference “Against corruption – For Montenegro’s Growth”, which will take place on December 15th in “Podgorica” Hotel, in Podgorica.

The aim of the project is to contribute to the enhancement and promotion of the SEE 2020 Strategy, particularly of its crosscutting pillar – “Governance for Growth”, which covers inter-related issues of combating corruption, reform of judiciary and good governance.

Topics in the focus of the event are:

– Regional priorities in combating corruption;

– The work of the Special Prosecutor’s Office and the exchange of data between the key institutions for combating corruption in Montenegro and the region;

– The importance of professional association and development of judges and prosecutors for combating corruption;

– The significance of scrutiny over public expenditure.

The agenda of the conference can be found here.

Take a look at video animation on SEE2020 and Governance for Growth, prepared within the project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da1yyzcEPYM.

More information about our previous events can be found on the following links:

The Implementation of the SEE 2020 Strategy: Citizens in focus

Development of the region under the watchful eye of the civil society

Conference is organized within the project “Governance for Growth – It Depends On Us!” which is being implemented by Institute alternative with funding by the Regional Cooperation Council under implementation of RCC’s South East Europe 2020 Strategy.

Press release: Passivity in work is not a recommendation for reelection

Institute Alternative (IA) does not support the reelection of the current Protector of Human Rights and Freedoms, because passivity at work shown during his previous mandate does not constitute a good basis for his reelection.

IA has pointed out on multiple occasions the ommissions in the work of the current Protector of Human Rights and Freedoms/Ombudsman, therefore the reelection of Mr Baković’s candidature cannot be supported again. It is our opinion that he has not contributed enough to the positive effect of the Institution of Protector, which has been recognised by the European Commission (EC) in its Progress Report on Montenegro for 2015, estimating that the capacities for efficient handling of complaints are still limited, despite certain improvements in terms of resources.

Although there is a relatively high level of implementation of recommendation that the Ombudsman carries out, overall, the number of carried out recommendations is still low (just 77 recommendation for 24 months), which demonstrates the lack of proactivity of this institution when it comes to the protection of human rights by the public authority body.

Some of these issues are also acknowledged by SIGMA, the joint initiative of the EC and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in the Report on Principles of Public Administration in Montenegro. SIGMA also points out a small number of recommendations of the Ombudsman and points out the negative opinions of several NGOs regarding its work. We consider that the Parliament and national institutions should acknowledge these positions of the civil society.

In addition, when it comes to nominating the Ombudsman, when proposing just one and the same candidate by President Vujanović, the competition for election for that position is put into jeopardy. Therefore it would be necessary to use the opportunity of proposing more than one candidate, in order to elect a new Protector of Human Rights and Freedoms according to the principle of competition and based on his/her knowledge of the modern concept of human rights as well as the personal and professional qualifications.

The current Protector of Human Rights and Freedoms has not therefore made the expected progress of this institution, which does not recommend him for being reelected the Protector. We therefore call for the members of the Parliament of Montenegro not to support the suggested candidate.

Stevo MUK
President of the Managing board

Conference announcement: “Promoting police integrity in Western Balkans”

Regional network of civil society organisations POINTPULSE is organising the conference “Promoting Police Integrity in Western Balkans”. The conference will take place in Belgrade, “Zira” hotel, Ruzveltova Street, on Thursday, with the beginning at 9 a.m.

The conference aims at determining possibilities for strengthening internal control of the police and the police in community, through open dialog of main stakeholders for police reform in the region. Thus we want to support consensus building for implementation of the most important measures for the future development of the police in the region, with a final objective – a police officer with integrity and safer citizens.

The conference is a joint initiative of the regional network of civil society organisations POINTPULSE and OSCE Mission to Serbia, and represents a final event within first year of implementation of the project “Western Balkans Pulse for Police Integrity and Trust: POINTPULSE”, supported by European Union through regional program “Civil Society Facility”.

You can also follow the activities within the project on the website www.pointpulse.net, via Twitter account @POINTPULSEnet, or by using #BalkanCops and #POINTPULSE.

The POINTPULSE contains of five civil society organizations from the region – Belgrade Centre for Security Police (BCSP), Institute alternative, Centre for Security Studies (CSS), Kosovar Centre for Security Studies (KCSS) and BIRN Serbia, networked to monitor fight against corruption in the police forces of the Western Balkans.

Press release: Director’s exam and transparency of our administration

The Administrative Inspection and other supervisory bodies should make a statement regarding the affair of alleged withholding the information on passing the professional examination for work in state authorities by the current director of the Agency for prevention of corruption and the implementation of the very procedure.

According to the media coverage, Sreten Radonjić, the director of the Agency, has passed the professional examination for work in state authorities just before he was appointed director on 28th of August. However, his name is missing from the list of candidates for passing the professional exam, which poses a logical question:

Is Mr Radonjić privileged by the Human Resources Management Authority (HRMA), which according to its own needs decide which information will be published online?

In addition to that, we wonder if and in which way the passing of this exam for this candidate was organized, as there is no clear publication and announcement of it on the website of the HRMA.

Institute Alternative has previously pointed out the issue of selective announcement of information by the Government and the state body.

Examples such as this one, where the public and the civil society only becomes aware of such issues by accident, puts into question the overall issue of transparency of the Government’s work, as well as the equality of its access towards all citizens, which are the issues meaningful for the life of citizens.

Institute Alternative has already pointed out some failures in establishing the Agency for the prevention of corruption. We consider that a multitude of puzzles, unresolved circumstances and hidden agendas related to this newly founded institution do not contribute to its profiling into a protector of integrity of public service and the carrier of a more efficient fight against corruption.

The Administrative Inspection and the Ministry of Interior that are supervising the work of the HRMA should therefore question the information and allegations related to the determination of the list of candidates who applied for the position of the Director of the Anti-corruption Agency, as well as the conditions all candidates for this function should comply with, as well as the very selection procedure.

We contribute to this by attaching a list of candidates that have been approved for taking the professional exam for work in state authorities of 28th of August 2015, which you can download here.

Institute alternative’s comments on the Draft Budget for 2016 of the Capital City Podgorica

Institute alternative delivered its recommendations for more transparent budget presentation in 2016.

Our suggestions concern the manner in which budget data are represented n the Draft Budget of the Capital City and the following justification.

Some of the recommendations strongly point out the need for understandible presentation of budget expenses and real needs of the organizational units, detailed presentation of data on capital projects, developement of better communication with the citizens and civil society during public debate on the Draft Budget etc.

Download the entire comments (in Montenegrin only)