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Towards opening of the discretionary expenditure of public enterprises

We call for the opposition representatives appointed within managing authorities of public property enterprises to firstly ask for and publish all the Board of Directors’ meeting minutes and particularly all records of sponsorships and aid. It is necessary to publish all decisions on the management of the so-called “free assets”, the discretionary decision-making on the income allocation, housing decisions, as well as all other ways of allocation of assets to employees, and to all other physical and legal entities not related to enterprises, besides salaries.

This type of expenditure (sponsorship, donations, aid) is entirely discretionary and an object of decision-making of the enterprise management, therefore it is a key area where (besides employment and procurement) various misuses of public resources for political gain can occur.

Since last year, Institute alternative has been trying to gain access to certain data in possession of public enterprises, coming across great issues due to silent administration and rejection of requests, precisely when it comes to the records from the Board of Directors’ sessions and its decisions.

We remind that the PEFA World Bank Report of 2013 has warned that the enterprises in public property are the least transparent part of the public sector, with a significant lack of information when it comes to public finances transparency. (World Bank, Evaluation of public expenditures and financial responsibility – the report on results of public finance management, July 2013).

The Law on the Implementation of the Agreement on Free and Fair elections (Lex specialis) implies that the opposition representatives in management authorities of enterprises, which are in majority owned by the state, have a right to get a report on any aspect of financial business in the enterprise (Article 15).

By this we do not imply only six national public enterprises where opposition representatives were appointed (Elektroprivreda, Montenegro Airlines, Plantaže, Pošta, Aerodromi, Monteput), but also the rest of 33 national enterprises, as well as numerous public enterprises, that are under the obligation of Lex specialis.

Even though according to Lex specialis mandate is limited to 2016, we consider it is necessary that the opposition representatives make an effort to access the data from previous years, which have to be public as there are no legal obstacles for doing so.

We have defined a set of information that every public sector authority has to publish proactively on their webpages together with the Center for Civic Education (CCE) and Network for Affirmation of NGO Sector (MANS). On the list of over 90 transparency requests public enterprises are particularly represented, and the key requests are those of expenditures that public enterprises have in the area of discretionary expenditure and payments for the entities that do not make part of enterprises.

Stevo Muk

President of the Managing Board

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Institute Alternative presented research findings on Freedom of Assembly in Montenegro

Ivana Bogojević and Aleksandra Vavić, on behalf on Institute Alternative, have participated at Expert Conference on Freedom of Assembly in Western Balkans.

Conference was held on June 21-22 in Skopje and organized by European Center Non-for-Profit Law (ECNL). During the event, pilot-research findings were presented, regarding legal framework and its implementation in five Western Balkans countries (Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia)

Next to Institute Alternative, research findings were presented by Research in Action – REACTOR from Macedonia, Civil Rights Defenders from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Human Rights House from Croatia and Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights from Serbia. Apart from findings, organizations formulated and presented recommendations for legal and institutional improvement.

Through the research, IA has notices deficiencies of current legal solution, while also looking back on its compliance with international standards. The problems, which we have recognized, refer to the duties and responsibilities of organizers of public gatherings with strict fine policy, overlapping responsibilities of national and local authorities, as well as the lack of pro-activeness of key institutions in this area, the Ministry of Interior and the Police Administration.

We have also analyzed Draft Law on Public Assemblies and Public Performances, which is currently in parliamentary procedure, lauding improvements and giving recommendation for its vague stipulations.

Report in its entirety will be available soon.

The project is made possible by the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law through the Civic Space Initiative, implemented in partnership with ARTICLE 19, CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation, and the World Movement for Democracy.

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The candidate of the Civic Alliance appointed unlawfully and against the will of NGOs

The Administrative Committee has again violated the law and acted despite the majority will of NGOs

We are disappointed by the decision of the Administrative Committee to propose the appointment of another representative of the NGO “Civic Alliance” as a member of the Council of the Agency for Electronic Media (AEM), by discriminating the candidate of the Association of Youth with Disabilities and therefore making procedures and criteria utterly pointless.

According to the law, the key criteria for the election are the number of NGOs that support the candidate and the candidate’s experience in the field of human rights and freedoms. On both counts, candidate Marina Vujačić had an advantage over the candidate supported by deputies.

Vujačić was supported by 38 non-governmental organizations, while the candidate of the Civic Alliance was supported by less than half that number, which is 18 non-governmental organizations. These are undisputable organizations as confirmed by the very Administrative Committee’s control and verification of the number of legal and legitimate proposals of support.

Actions speak in the case of the experience of the candidate of the Association of Youth with Disabilities of Montenegro (AYDME), as well as the experiences of persons to whom the AYDME has been providing help and support for years, as well as the systemic fight for equal opportunities for persons with disabilities.

We consider that this proposal of the Administrative Committees significantly contributes to the development of monopoly in electronic media management, furthermore it raises the question of conflict of interests given that the Civic Alliance already had a representative at the Council of the Agency for Electronic Media. The members of the Administrative Committee are unable to explain to the public as to why they are proposing this candidate and rejecting the candidacy of the representative of AYDME. This is precisely why a mechanism of proposing of the representatives of NGOs and its criteria were formulated, in order to stop the electoral controversy and discretionary decision-making, as well as to put to stop the intermingling of political parties’ interests, which the deputies in the Administrative Committee decided to neglect.

The practice of neglect of the formal criteria and making the naming procedure of NGOs pointless by making political decisions by the Administrative Committee is not new, and as a rule it appears to be happening when it comes to naming a representative of the Civic Alliance. Besides the fact that the same organization will have two out of five members of the Council of AEM, it also has a representative in the Council of Public Service of RTCG. The appointment of the representative of the CA caused a lot of controversy even then, and a great number of organizations expressed their strong opposition to such practice of the Administrative Committee during previous two cases.

We would like to remind the public that even besides the official request of the Council of AEM that the Administrative Committee reconsider the conflict of interests of Darko Ivanović, the Administrative Committee refuses to put this question in its daily agenda.

Institute alternative will together with other NGOs reconsider further participation in the procedure of proposing representatives of NGOs in public institutions, given that the overall procedure is made pointless with direct political involvement, with providing advantage to politically suitable candidates despite the rules and criteria, as well as disrespect of legal provisions by the Administrative Committee of the Parliament.

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Initiative: State should not charge access to regulations

Institute Alternative sent an initiative to the Government and the Official Gazette to allow free access to final (consolidated) texts of regulations for all citizens.

Citizens do not have free access to the official database of consolidated texts of regulations of the Official Gazette. According to the Law on publication of regulations and other documents, the electronic edition of the Official Gazette is free, but the section on access to the texts of consolidated legislation is commercialized and charged 180 Euros per year for a single license (according to the latest published information). Alongside Official Gazette, similar and advanced services are being offered by private companies at several times higher prices.

Edited text represents only text of legal regulation, currently in force. It contains the original text of the regulation and any changes that have been adopted from the date of its entry into force. Official Gazette in its free issues publishes the original text of the regulation but all subsequent modifications, additions, corrections are published only in the form of change of those provisions.

For example, The Local Government Act has been changed 11 times since coming into force in 2003 until today.

Citizen can access the text of Law currently in force, in two ways:

a) to pay 180 Euros to the Official Gazette or double that amount to other private companies in order to access edited text, or

b) find all 12 issues of Official Gazette (including the one where the Law was published for the first time) and compare all the changes and amendments, by him/herself till he or she reaches the final version.

The Law on the publication of regulations and other documents, defines the publication of laws, regulations and acts in the “Official Gazette of Montenegro” at the activity of public interest. Publication of regulations is jurisdiction of the Official Gazette, which was established as a public institution.

Official Gazette established cooperation with the company “Web regulations” (Web propisi) from Serbia in 2013, which created the electronic register of consolidated texts of regulations, which users can access only if they buy a license. The contract between the company and the public institution ’’Official Gazette’’, stipulated provisions in the first five years, so that total revenue from sales is to be divided so that Official Gazette retains 60%, and “Web regulations,” 40% of profit.

Since the establishment of the register until the beginning of this year, Official Gazette earned a total of 20 407.28 Euros. Revenues from the sale of licenses for access to the register of consolidated texts (Income from electronic subscriptions to Web regulations) for last year amounted to 9,385 Euros, which is 1.3% of the total revenue that this public institution collected (713 007.00). According to the report on the work of the institution, revenues are “largely” used to maintain the Legal Information System.

During the year 2015, almost the same amount was given by the Director of the institution to employees and retired employees on behalf of the 8th of March and on the Day of the Foundation of the Institution, which is the amount that is allocated to the Official Gazette each year for the programme ’’ Publications of regulations’’- 9 500 |€.

[1] By using taxpayers’ money, which is either paid directly from the state budget, or collected due to monopoly position of the Official Gazette, this institution commercialises access to edited texts of regulations. This practice must be stopped, and insignificant revenues are saying about the unsustainability of such a solution.

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[1] Decision of the Director No. 635 of 03/05/2015, on behalf of the holiday “March 8″, for the 10 women employees, 1,100.00 Euros; Decision No. 2109 of the Director of 07/09/2015, on behalf of awards on the occasion of the Foundation of the Instittuion – 10 July, for 15 employees and five retirees, 8,140.00 Euros

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SELDI Policy Workshop: Strengthening Resilience to Corruption and State Capture in Southeast Europe

SELDI Network (network of organizations involved in countering corruption in South East Europe), organised on 14 June 2016 in Brussels a policy workshop on Strengthening Resilience to Corruption and State Capture in Southeast Europe, to discuss with regional partners and European Commission (EC) representatives key anti-corruption institutions in SEE countries – their activities, capacities, mechanisms and cooperation with CSOs, the role of CSOs in monitoring reforms, monopoly policies, particularly in energy sector and the role of CSO in advocating for good governance in this and other critical sectors.

Five panel discussions were held within policy workshop, and speakers were representatives of EC, media, NGOs and business community from SEE countries. Through presentations and interactive discussion, participants underlined that having good laws and institutions are good first steps in countering corruption, however they need to be accompanied by political will and change of mentality, in order to achieve positive results in this area.

As one of the panelists, Sabine Zwaenepoel, from Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG Near), European Commission, pointed out, Governments of Western Balkan countries have recently started to embrace soft preventive tools in countering corruption, and effective enforcement and results are missing. She stated that independent civil society, autonomous from government, private interests or radical movements, could have a key role in solving this issue, by monitoring reforms and applying political pressure for change.

However, CSOs in these countries are still being seen by authorities as critics or enemies, so mutual cooperation remains unsatisfactory.

IA representative at SELDI Policy workshop, Ana Đurnić, as an example of such practice, stated a poor cooperation and closure of Montenegrin Agency for Prevention of Corruption towards CSOs and informed participants on latest amendments to the Rules of Procedure of Council of the Agency, which closed Council’s sessions for NGO representatives. She also presented problems in establishing the Agency, but also its weak capacities, low level of transparency and lack of concrete results in combating corruption so far, that IA findings pointed at.

More information about the policy workshop can be find on the following link.

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TV Show: Participation of citizens and NGOs in public administration reform

President of the Managing Board of Institute Alternative, Stevo Muk, was a guest on the show Club A on Atlas TV. The topic of the show was participation of citizens and NGOs in the preparation of key strategic and policy documents, focusing on the Public Administration Reform Strategy.

IA, as he said, researches the topic of public administration since its inception, paying particular attention to transparency and participatory process. He added that this deficiency is recognized as a systemic problem when it comes to the public policy planning in Montenegro.

“We in Institute Alternative, often say that this strategy, that is its draft, lacks human face”, Stevo emphasized, alluding to the fact that citizens are not involved in its preparation, although this reform is being developed for them and concerns them the most.

Moreover, Stevo spoke about the thin line between party and state administration: “Even this strategy has failed to tackle the problem of non-existing merit-based system of recruitment and promotion in the civil service,” he concluded.

Video hosting the show Club A can be viewed at the link below: