Posted on

Monitoring of Public Procurement – Good Practices

Research coordinator, Jovana Marović, participated today at the workshop on monitoring of public procurements, organized by SIGMA.

She presented Institute alternative’s one year research and recently published publication called ‘Procurements in Montenegro: corruption within legal framework’, and also pointed out numerous issues and irregularities in implementation of the Law, restrictive to transparency.

  • Not publishing individual reports of contracting authority liable to Law on Public Procurement;
  • The lack of precise information on the number of contract annexes concluded on yearly bases;
  • Publishing only certain violations of Law at the sample level, made by Public Procurements Administration;
  • The lack of equal implementation of legal solutions;
  • Poor control over public procurement procedures and concluded contracts;
  • The lack of evidence on responsible officials of ceratin violations of the Law.

Besides Jovana, the event included other participants, such as Representatives of Transparency International Slovakia, SIGMA, Public Procurement Administration etc.

Posted on

Comments given to MINA Agency regarding the police torture during the protest

Police torture issues to be solved systematically

We are encouraged by the prompt reaction of the Prosecutor’s Office and conducted hearings of 8 members of Special Anti-terrorist Unit (SAJ). When compared to the previous period, the Prosecutor’s Office does not show the passivity in its work and we hope that they will persist in this kind of acting, showing its integrity by prosecuting each case of abuse of authority.

Additionally, it is praiseworthy that only one day after the protest the Police Administration has established a Commission to determine circumstances which led to the use of the means of force. We expect results from this body, not idliness. The Commission should continue its work and reviewing submitted reports as well as clarifying possible inconsistencies in testimonies.

Several years in a row, the police showed positive trend in its work with increased number of cases against police officers for violations of the law, official duty and ethical code. The management of the police and the Ministry of Interior (MoI) have to ensure that each officer who overstepped the competences gets held accountable, and therefore, give the best answer to the question whether excessive use of force was instructed, or police officers have acted on their own initiative.

Therefore, we expect that the Police will prove that, what has undoubtedly happened in a number of cases, was not encouraged by the top of the chain of command in the Police by prosecuting violators and showing other officials that these are not the values that our Police promotes and preserves.

We are also witnesses of many assessments of police acting as irresponsible, populist and other extremely biased attitudes that polarize society – ranging from those who claim that the police is innocent to those who claim that the police is completely responsible for everything that happened. In this way, the simplified treatment of this problem does not bring us any closer to what should be a common goal – to ensure that nothing similar happens again and that we build a professional police that serves its citizens. On the occasion of next Pride Parade or when riots break out eg. after the match, we expect that the police protects its citizens and all preconditions must be ensured.

IA therefore calls upon all actors dealing with the issues of police work to jointly prepare the set of measures for combating police torture which has to become an integral part of the Strategy for the Development and the Functioning of the Police 2016-2020 which is being prepared by the MoI.

Although the first thing should be the prosecution of those who violated the law, it will not be enough to ensure that all police officers act within their competences in future situations. The issue of police torture is very complex, and even though it may be, it is not only a political issue. It also reflects the fact that a number of officers failed to adopt the values of non-violent and humane treatment. We must strive to have police officers who will be empowered to refuse unethical order or to stop a colleague who acts against the law.

Police officers need to be continuously trained with specific examples of how to deal with stressful situations and incidents, (because the regulations stipulate that police officers can be held accountable when acting ex officio and when they are not), as well as to have regular medical and psychological controls.

We should also encourage police officers to report their colleagues who were demonstrating excessive use force, who have, by doing that, not only caused serious bodily harm to citizens who have exercised their constitutional right to protest, but have undermined arduously gained confidence in the police, and threw a shadow over all the good that the police has achieved in previous years.

Dina BAJRAMSPAHIĆ
Public policy researcher

Posted on

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

Civil society organisations should stick to their original role of the corrective mechanism within the implementation of the Strategy “South East Europe 2020″, it was said at the consultative meeting organized by the Institute alternative (IA).

The meeting was organised within the project “Governance for Montenegro’s Growth: It Depends on Us!” which is being implemented by IA with the financial support of theRegional Cooperation Council (RCC).

“Governance for Growth” is a horizontal, all-pervading pillar of the SEE Strategy covering issues of good governance, fight against the corruption and the judicial reform.

Citizens’ expectations and their satisfaction with the living standard are in the greatest correlation with the progress within this chapter, according to the results of “Balkan Barometer”, extensive public opinion survey aiming to monitor the implementation of the strategic goals of the region.

The research, modeled by the “Eurobarometar”, is only one of the mechanisms developed for the monitoring of the implementation of the regional strategy, whose results are available at the separately developed page of the Regional Cooperation Council.

The role of civil society, when it comes to “Governance for Growth”, should be focused on the continuous review of the certain indicators and their value, as well as the enabling the qualitative monitoring of the reform, considering the fact that the numbers used to indicate the effectiveness of the regional Governments offer simple overview and comparison among countries, but they do not offer the detailed insights into the matter.

Furthermore, taking into consideration that there the countries of the Western Balkans have committed themselves to implement numerous strategies, it is necessary to oversight their mutual compliance and their compliance with the key goals of the Strategy “SEE 2020″. During the meeting, it was pin-pointed that there is a great potential in mutual empowerment of the reforms within the “Governance for Growth” and process of the accession to the EU, particularly in relation to the certain chapter, such as Public procurement (5) or Judiciary and Fundamental rights (23).

Moreover, the key responsibility for the application of the Strategy lays with the national administrations which is why the civil society organisations should use that fact as the additional space for the advocacy of their recommendations and the setting of the strategic priorities on the national level.

The event organised in Podgorica has gathered more than 30 representatives of the civil society. Speakers on the behalf of Institute alternative were Stevo Muk, the President of the Managing board and Milena Milošević, public policy researcher. Different aspects of the implementation of the “SEE 2020″ Strategy and potential way of involvement of the civil society have been presented by Dragan Đurić, Programme Manager in Regional School of Public Administration (ReSPA), Milena Lazarević, Senior Programme Manager at the European Policy Centre from Belgrade, Natalija Shikova on behalf of the Center for Change Management headquartered in Skopje, Emsad Dizdarević representing Transparency International Bosnia and Herzegovina and Rijad Kovač on behalf of Evaluation Society in Bosnia and Herzegovina

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.

Posted on

SELDI Conference on Countering Corruption held in Podgorica

SELDI network (the network of organizations involved in the countering corruption in South Eastern Europe) organised on 29-30 October in Podgorica an international conference to discuss with local and regional stakeholders the best methods for transforming the existing cutting-edge anti-corruption and good governance research into efficient policy and advocacy tools. The participants focused on the role of the civil society in evaluating the impact of current anti-corruption measures and stressed on the need of stronger collaboration with the public institutions, the media, and the general public. The participants noted the importance of free access to data, such as public procurement databases, asset declarations, financial audits of state-owned enterprises, the reports and recommendations by the European Commission.

SELDI konferencija o borbi protiv korupcije u Podgorici

Within the conference three panel discussions were held – “Transforming Cutting-Edge Anti-Corruption and Good Governance Research into Policy and Advocacy Tools: Next Steps in the EU Accession Process”, “Advocating for Good Governance in Critical Sectors: the Energy Sector in SEE”, and “Enhancing CSOs Advocacy Efforts in SEE: Leveraging EU and National Reform Efforts”.

Research coordinator at Institute alternative, Jovana Marović, spoke at the first panel of the SELDI conference about key issues and priority areas susceptible to corruption in Montenegro. She noted the trend of government buying votes by employing people in the public sector, as well as the prosecution of only low-ranking officers, while examples of prosecuting persons in management positions are extremely rare. She expressed her concerns about the intransparent manner in which concessions are granted, and the low trust of the citizens in the public institutions. She noted that CSOs are prevented from obtaining data, and excluded from the decision-making process. Still, in recent years the civil society sector in Montenegro has realized its potential to collaborate and NGOs in Montenegro have turned into key subjects for providing corruption monitoring, and filling institutional gaps.

As good practices she noted the portal Moj Grad which visualizes the local budgets, Moja Uprava portal which allows the citizens to check the circumstances of employment contracts by the public institutions, as well as the Portal Moj Novac which follows the budget spendings of the institutions.

More information about the conference can be find on the following link.

Posted on

Press Release: The Director of the Agency for Prevention of Corruption does not want to be controlled by the public!

Comments of the Directorate for Anti-Corruption Initiative and Director of the Agency for Prevention of Corruption on the Draft of the Rules of Procedure of the Council of the Agency are intended to completely prevent public access to its work, by closing the session for public, because of, as stated, “spatial capacities” given to this body.

After reviewing the Proposed Rules of Procedure submitted to us, and after “adjustments” of the Directorate for Anti-Corruption Initiative and Director of the Agency for prevention of corruption, we call on the Council of the Agency not to accept these proposals and to prevent the complete closure of this institution for the public!

We believe that the explanation that “publicity of work will not be spatially possible to provide on the location that has been given to the Agency”, as well as the question „whether the presence of all the interested public is purposeful in a situation where a new institution begins with this important work,” is just scandalous and leads to further renewal of underhanded actions and lack of transparency which we have witnessed during the process of appointing the director and some of the members of the Council. In this way the cooperation of the Council with the media and civil sector is completely disabled, which raises the question “which are the forms of cooperation with non-governmental organizations” that the Council has agreed on with the NGO representatives at the last session, as it was announced after its maintenance. Also, the Draft of the Rules of Procedure prescribes that the director shall inform the public about the work of the Council, which further limits the transparency.

The director Radonjić is obviously not comfortable with further control, taking into account the primary jurisdiction of the Council to supervise his work. Finally, an additional problem is the attitude or comment of the Directorate and the director that „the situation that the member of the Council can be in a conflict of interest is unclear“, especially if we take into account the way of appointing Radonjić.

Posted on

Rule of Law or Rule of Force?

Centre for Civic Education (CCE) and Institute Alternative (IA) warn of obvious example of obstruction of justice within the bodies that should primarily secure the law enforcement, and which must be urgently solved.

IA and CCE estimate that yesterday’s hearing of commander of Special Antiterrorist Unit (SAJ) Radosav Lješković before the Prosecution represents a textbook instance of obstruction of justice, obstruction of investigation as well as a form of abuse of official position.

If Lješković does not know which member of SAJ, unit which he is in charge of, brutally injured Miodrag Mijo Martinović and destroyed his vehicle, and if he does not know which two members of special squads were in “hummer” with him, then he should be immediately dismissed.

Should Lješković not be dismissed, or if he meanwhile fails to “remember” those important facts, then this will be the direct responsibility of Slavko Stojanović, director of Police Directorate, who appointed him and who is, thus, accountable for his work.

Finally, if Stojanović himself fails to recognise his responsibility, then it shall fall under the direct responsibility of Minister of Interior, Raško Konjević, as his superior.

State in which the citizen can be brutally beaten by members of law enforcement agency without visible faces and names, and whose senior officers attempt to cover up that crime through the use of “the Law of silence”, is the state where the rule of law is not leaving, and where the security of each citizen is directly threatened.

Currently, there is no greater test for investigative and judicial authorities in Montenegro than to establish the disciplinary, criminal and other liability for the crime committed against Martinović, as well as for the attempts to cover up that same crime in spite of the evidence which shocked the Montenegrin public.

Of course, the whole case cant’s remain outside the domain of politics, and the necessity of establishing political accountability is imposed as logical, even though in Montenegro we, unfortunately, is not a commonplace.

Daliborka Uljarević, Executive Director, CCE

Stevo Muk, president of Managing Board, IA