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Reaction: Senior Managers Are Not Ministers’ “Personal Entourage”

Recent re-appointments of Director Generals and Secretaries from one Ministry to another, which followed the latest government reconstruction, pose a great danger to the professionalization of the Montenegrin civil service system.

Appointments of new government ministers and reappointment of the old ones were followed by turn-overs on the positions of Director Generals and Secretaries in the Ministries. This once again confirms findings of Insititute Alternative’s that neither expert and professional qualities and competences nor skills are considered to be the main recommendation during the appointment of the senior managerial staff in our administration.

For example, during the Government’s session, held on April 2nd, the decision on termination of the mandate of the Director General of the Directorate of Labour in the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare was brought, based on personal request. At the same session, the same person was re-appointed to the position of Acting Secretary of the Ministry of Education.

During the same meeting, the similar case was repeated because one more person was “moved” from the position of the Director General of the Directorate for Labour Market and Employment within the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare to the position of Acting Director General of the Directorate for Primary and Preschool Education and Education of Persons with Special Education Needs within the Ministry of Education.

We remind that, in the same period, Predrag Bošković, previously serving as the Minister of the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, was appointed to the position of the Minister of Education.

These cases indicate that Montenegro lacks awareness on the need for specialized organizational units within each state body to be lead by experts in the field, and not necessarily by people who enjoy political confidence of ministers, who are primarily political appointees.

In particular, the previously described abuse of institute of resignation “on personal request” and of the institute of “Acting official” in our state administration, points out to the danger to completely render senseless the Law on Civil Servants and State Employees, which stipulates clear procedures for filling vacancies of senior managerial personnel – Directors General and Secretary in the ministries.

These procedures include announcement of an open call and qualification assessment by the special commission established by the Human Resources Management Authority, precisely because the Secretaries and Director Generals in ministries or, colloquially known as assistant ministers, are civil servants who should serve the public interest and not the interests certain political parties or political figures.

SIGMA, the joint initiative of the European Commission and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has warned, in its Principles of Public Administration, that these positions should represent the dividing line which separates the political appointees and professionalized civil servants.

IA has warned in its study “Professionalisation of Senior Civil Service in Montenegro: Between State and Politics” from December 2014 with the support of Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES), that “by the book” professionalized senior managerial staff and heads of state authorities are practically exposed to the political influence.

Milena MILOŠEVIĆ

Public Policy Researcher

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IA and consumer protection

Institute alternative is participating in the project “Strengthening Consumer Protection Organisations for better Municipal Services in SEE” in cooperation with the members of the Think for Europe Network in South Eastern Europe, under the auspices of the German organisation for international cooperation (The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit)– GIZ.

IA i zaštita potrošačaProject activities are aimed at strengthening consumer organisations in Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Albania, in order to achieve higher quality of consumer services at the local level in these countries.

The focus of the work of consumer organisations from Serbia (National Consumers Protection Organisation of Serbia – NOPS), Montenegro (The Consumers Protection Center of Montenegro – CEZAP) and Macedonia (The Consumers Protection Organisation of Macedonia – OPM) in cooperation with research centers, the European Policy Center from Serbia – CEP , The European Policy Institute from Macedonia – EPI and the institute alternative, will be the development of action plans and recommendations for policymakers and providers of local services, in order to strengthen mechanisms for consumer protection and quality of services.

One of the goals of the project is also the development of a strategy for raising awareness of consumer protection as well as the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding for establishing a regional consumer organisations network in Southeast Europe – CONWeb.

In accordance with the above, the project provides a set of events, including workshops that represent the initial steps in strengthening consumer organisations. One such workshop, attended by representatives of IA, has been organised on 30 and 31 March 2015.

Za-radionicuThe workshop brought together the above-mentioned research centers and consumer organisations, in order to determine the mechanisms of data collection and analytical framework in the protection of consumer services and strengthening the capacity of consumer organisations in Southeast Europe.

Before the interactive sessions, the organisations had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the development of public policy and advocacy. The focus of the study was to acquire new knowledge and skills in developing a joint regional study, which will provide a detailed insight into the challenges that consumer organisations are facing, as well as the development of new or impact on existing public policy in the field of consumer protection.

This workshop is one in a series of events that will be organised by members of Think for Europe Network. Institute Alternative’s workshop will be organised in June, and consumer organisations will have the opportunity to acquire new knowledge and skills in the field of fundraising, in order to strengthen their capacities in the field of writing projects in the future work of CONWeb.

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Concrete Steps for Strenghtening Cooperation of Parliament and SAI Announced

In the next two months, the Committee on Economy, Finance and Budget and the State Audit Institution, will, with our help, work on defining the elements of a protocol on cooperation.

This is the key conclusion from the meeting, held in the Parliament of Montenegro, between the members of the SAI Senate, parliamentary Committee on Economy, Finance and Budget and Institute alternative.

Issues raised at the meeting were the need of paying more attention to individual reports on the audit (besides the audit of the final budget account), the separation of the discussion on the annual report of the SAI and the discussions on the revision of the final accounts, reporting on the implementation of recommendations and monitoring the work of the auditees in this field.

The plans to form a subcommittee on the control of public finances, its scope of activities and the possibility of creating a special committee in the future were also discussed. At the meeting, the participants also discussed the appointment of missing member of the Senate, initiating criminal charges as well as the need to solve the problem of spatial capacities for the work of the SAI.

It was jointly stated that, in order to strengthen mutual cooperation and achieve more effective control over public finances, it is necessary to formalize cooperation between the Committee and SAI, and that in this light, with the participation of the IA, in the future; the relevant document should be defined.

Committee members who attended the meeting were: Aleksandar Damjanović, Zoran Jelić, Filip Vuković, Almer Kalač, Strahinja Bulajić, Milutin Đukanović i Goran Tuponja. On behalf of Senate of SAI, Milan Dabović, Branislav Radulović, Dragiša Pešić i Nikola Kovačević attended the meeting.

The meeting is the part of the project “Together towards accountability – strengthening the impact of the state audit in Montenegro”, supported by the he Royal Norwegian Embassy in Belgrade. The goal of the project is to increase the level of the implementation of SAI’s recommendations, as well as strengthening ties with between the SAI and the Parliament of Montenegro, civil society organizations and internal auditors in the public sector.

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Appeal to establish the working group for improvement of the control mechanisms of the Parliament

It is necessary to further strengthen the control function of the Parliament, and there are four possible directions for improvement, based on: the precise definition and delimitation of competences between the branches of government; regulating control mechanisms, transparency in the work of parliament; strengthening the capacity of professional services.

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“Although the European Commission in the Progress Report states that the control function of the Parliament was improved, our findings show that over the last year there was no progress,” said Jovana Marović, research coordinator at the Institute Alternative. At the press conference “Towards the more efficient use of the control function of the Parliament”, which was realized with the support of the Open Society Institute, Think Tank Fund from Budapest, Jovana said that statistics show that MPs used less control mechanisms available at their disposal, than in 2013 and that there was no progress in the regulation of the control mechanisms, or normative regulation of relations with the executive power. Therefore, according to her, it is necessary to adopt the Law on Parliament that would precisely define the jurisdiction of Parliament in relation to the other branches of government, i.e., to use legal regulations that would oblige the government and other state institutions to work and report on the basis of findings of the Parliament.

Control and consultative hearings are not making sufficient impact in practice, and because of that, they often end with the harmonization of the summary of information that is only a review of the situation of the topic of the hearing. Opening remarks by representatives of the institutions are too long, and they should be repealed, and to introduce the practice of sending written contributions before the meeting. Also, it is necessary to publish audio recordings of the hearings. When it comes to Parliamentary questions, the session dedicated to this control mechanism should be organized once a month, such as those dedicated to the Prime Minister hour.

Public policy researcher in IA, Dina Bajramspahić, pointed out that, since two new initiatives for the parliamentary inquiry are announced, it is necessary to previously form a parliamentary working group for the improvement of the Law on Parliamentary Investigation, in order to prevent the repetition of the problems of the previous mechanisms. In the first place, it is necessary to prescribe penalties for failure of delivering the information to the Inquiry committee, as well as giving false testimony before the Inquiry Committee; prescribe mandatory submission of responses to all individual requests of the members of the Board of the Inquiry Committee, etc. This working group should be engaged in all directions for further improvement of parliamentary work, and it would also include representatives of the civil sector through public calls.

Marko Sošić, public policy researcher, pointed out that the IA has noted a number of problems when it comes to the formulation of the national budget in the draft Law on the budget for 2015, as well as its adoption by the Parliament, ambiguities in the Rules of Procedures and lack of capacity in the Parliamentary Service. In order to have the Parliament able to make meaningful, substantiated and necessary amendments to the national budget, where those are needed, it is necessary to implement the amendments to the legal framework and practice. They are related to the opening of the capital budget, capacity building of the Parliamentary Service, specifying the Rules of Procedure in the part referring to the consideration of draft laws in the working bodies and harmonization of amendments. It is also necessary to completely reform the way the amendments to the budget proposal are being prepared.

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Institute Alternative established its Advisory Board

Since 2007, Institute Alternative, working as a scientific-research center, contributes to the improvement of public policy in Montenegro, acting within its main fields (public administration, parliamentary program, accountable public finances, security and defense). Numerous studies, public policy proposals, participation in working groups are behind us. We are continuously working on improving our own research capacity, research agenda and network of external consultants and experts. In this regard, we have established Advisory Board that consists of prominent experts in the field of our activities. The primary objective of this body is to offer opinions and guidelines towards defining our annual work program and research agenda.

The members of Advisory Board are:

  • Prof. dr Florian Bieber, Professor at University of Graz
  • Dr Katarina Ott, Director of the Institute for Public Finances, Zagreb
  • Sonja Stojanović Gajić, Director of Belgrade Center for Security Studies
  • Natasha Wunsch, associate fellow at Oppenheim Center within German
  • Council for Foreign Affairs (DGAP), PhD candidate at London University
  • Munir Podumljak, President of the Partnership for Social Development, Zagreb
  • Dr Kristie Evenson, independent researcher and evaluator in the fields of democratization and civil society development
  • Prof. dr Ivan Koprić, Professor at the Faculty of Law at University of Zagreb and President of the Institute for Public Administration
  • Kristof Bender, Deputy President of the European Stability Initiative (ESI).

The Advisory Board will assist in establishing strategic partnerships and contribute to greater visibility of Institute Alternative.

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Training for our researchers – TRAIN and DCAF seminars

Institute alternative announces with pleasure that our organization has once again been chosen to participate in TRAIN programme (Think Tanks providing Research and Advice through Interaction and Networking), financed by the Federal Foreign Office (Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe) and implemented by DGAP (German Council on Foreign Relations). The aim of the TRAIN programme is to strengthen the dialogue among the research centers in Western Balkans, political actors and decision makers.

Three researchers from IA have participated in this programme by now. This year the participant representing IA will be Dina Bajramspahić, our researcher.

The topic of Dina’s research deals with how to improve the police integrity. The aim of the analysis is to contribute to the increased trust in the Police and to find out what is to what extent the police officers are being systemically motivated and encouraged to professional work. She will analyze the shortcomings of the existing framework for the promotion of integrity, as well as to initiate the open dialogue about launching new incentive measures.

In that regard, Dina has participated in first round of TRAIN programme held in Belgrade from April 19-22, which was dedicated to the design of the research, methodology and techniques of the policy paper writing, analysis of the research environment and plans for advocating the recommendations.

Aiming to find out more about international standards in the field of police integrity, she has also participated in the seminar “The role of independent bodies for complaints of citizens on police” The seminar was organized by the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) and the Centre for Security Studies in Sarajevo. During the seminar, the experiences of Belgium, Northern Ireland and Hungary were presented.