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Announcement: Almost Half of the Government Members Does not Give Access to Their Bank Accounts

Prime Minister Duško Marković, Deputy Prime Minister for Regional Development Rafet Husović and nine out of 19 ministers, did not give access to their bank accounts to the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption. Also, out of the 16 presidents of the political parties represented in the Parliament, seven of them do not allow the Agency to check their bank accounts, including the president of the Democratic Party of Socialists and former Prime Minister Milo Đukanovic.

Prime Minister Dusko Markovic and nine out of 19 ministers did not give their consent for the verification of their bank accounts to the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption. Among those who do not want the Agency to have insight into their bank accounts are two of the three Deputy Prime Ministers – Zoran Pažin, Deputy Prime Minister for Political System, Internal and External Affairs and Minister of Justice, and Rafet Husovic, Deputy Prime Minister for Regional Development. Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Policy and Financial System and Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Milutin Simovic, provided consent to the Agency to check their bank accounts.

Among nine ministers who did not give the aforementioned consent, in addition to Minister Pažin, include Minister of Defense, Predrag Boskovic, Minister of Finance, Darko Radunović, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Srđan Darmanovic, Minister of Education, Damir Šehović, Minister of Economy, Dragica Sekulić, Minister of Transport and Maritime Affairs, Osman Nurković, Minister of Health, Kenan Hrapović and Minister of Labour and Social Welfare, Kemal Purišić.

Also, by inspecting the assets of the presidents of political parties represented in the Parliament, we found that seven of the total of 16 of the presidents do not allow the Agency to check their bank accounts. Among them are Milo Đukanović, President of the Democratic Party of Socialists, Nebojša Medojević, President of the Movement for Change, Ranko Krivokapić, President of the Social Democratic Party, Ivan Brajović, President of Social-Democrats, Andrija Popović, President of the Liberal Party, Miodrag Lekić, President of Demos and Rafet Husović, President of the Bosniac Party. This tells us that the higher function in practice does not entail greater transparency and responsibility towards the citizens, since most of them simultaneously perform very high public functions – those of MPs, President of the Assembly and Deputy Prime Minister.

Even though the statistics of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption in its Report for 2016 indicate that most public officials (73%) and civil servants (76%) “have nothing to hide”, that is, that they have given their consent for their bank accounts to be checked, it seems that at the highest level of public officials these statistics are disastrous. This is important, especially if we have in mind that most of these officials have been performing various public functions for many years, through which they have had access to numerous state resources and citizens’ money.

Institute Alternative already pointed out the necessity for the Agency to publish the list of public officials and civil servants who gave, or did not give their consent for the verification of their bank accounts. We also requested, via freedom of information requests, from the Agency the copies of given consents, with the protection of personal data – the erasing of the unique registration number and the numbers of bank accounts of public officials. For nearly nine months, the Agency has been silent on our requests, as well as on the decisions of the Agency for the Protection of Personal Data and Free Access to Information, which adopted our complaints.

Although the information on who allowed access to their bank account and who did not, represents an integral part of the income and property report posted on the Agency’s website, a unified, publicly available information about which public officials hide their bank accounts is still not available.

Ana Đurnić
Public Policy Researcher

The announcement was published as part of the research within the project “ Towards Qualitative Signs of the Anti-Corruption Efficacy” implemented by IA with the financial support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Opinions and attitudes stated in the announcement do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Kingdom of the Netherlands Embassy.

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Press release: Clarify the Actions of the Special Antiterrorist Unit

Institute Alternative urges the Police Director of Montenegro to explain why the officers of the Special Antiterrorist Unit (SAJ) intervened in one nightclub in Budva on 10 of July this year.

The members of the SAJ, elite unit specializing in the most complicated police affairs, during the evening on 10 of July had conducted a target-driven search with the use of force on the persons of security interests from Zeta, Montenegro.

Media reports said the sons of the Supreme State Prosecutor Ivica Stanković and Interior Minister Melvudin Nuhodzić were both in the club during the raid, with their own security escorts. Police have not commented on the case so far.

“Since this was obviously not a potential terrorist threat, hostage situation, or the action of the arrest of suspected perpetrators of crimes that are expected to provide violent resistance, it is not clear why the Special Antiterrorist Unit was the one who intervened, stated Institute Alternative.

They pointed out that this police action, according to media reports, did not result in the arrest of any individuals, nor was any illegal object found and seized, which may indicate that the SAJ did not have the adequate information that led to the action.

Institute Alternative states also that the impression is that the “sole aim was the intimidation and disciplining of the ‘persons of interest‘, who are not suspected of any criminal offense, otherwise they would be arrested”.

“Bearing in mind that the Police Directorate of Montenegro has two more special purpose units – the Intervention and Special Unit, we ask the Police Directorate to explain why an elite unit performs inspections along the coast and what is the role of the other police units”, Institute Alternative stated.

Institute Alternative reminds the public that the Montenegrin Police Directorate has made public statements in the situations of much less professional significance and public interest, while in this example – in spite of media allegations and unclearness about what happened – there is no official statement from the Police or the answers to the questions raised on this occasion.

Dina Bajramspahić
Public Policy Researcher

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IA with colleagues from TEN Network on a Study Tour to Slovakia and Czech Republic

On June 26-30, Institute Alternative alongside each of the TEN member organisations, together with civil servants from each of the Western Balkan countries, participated in a study tour to Bratislava (Slovak Republic) and Prague (Czech Republic), as part of the project “Raising capacities and advocacy potential towards more substantive involvement of CSOs of V4 and WB6”. The project is implemented by TEN and supported by the Visegrad Fund.

Participants had the chance to visit both the civil society organisations and the state institutions in charge of horizontal policymaking in the Slovak Republic and Czech Republic. In Slovakia, the visit was hosted by the partner organisation Slovak Governance Institute, whose director and senior researcher Mr. Ctibor Košťál welcomed the participants and introduced them into the Slovak context and presented the successful work of the SGI in Slovakia. The government’s experience in cooperating with CSOs was presented by Ms. Jana Kviečinská from the Office of the Minister, Ministry of Justice; Ms. Viktória Mlynarčíková from the Head of Development Cooperation Unit, International Relations Section, Ministry of Finance and Mr. Milan Andrejkovič from the Office of the Plenipotentiary of the Government for the Development of Civil Society. The practice of the civil sector was presented by Mr. Ján Hargaš from Slovensko.digital, Mr. Martin Kollárik from the Slovak Governance Institute, Mr. Pavel Hrica from the Pontis Foundation and Mr. Matej Hruška from the Stop Corruption Foundation. The interactive discussions served for gaining insights and ideas for improving the quality of the policymaking systems both in WB6 countries and in the Slovak Republic.

In the Czech Republic, the participants were welcomed by Mr. Michal Vit from the partner organisation EUROPEUM, who provided the introduction into the Czech context and presented their previous initiatives, projects and cooperation with the Western Balkan think tanks. The focus of the visit was placed on a very successful case of the Reconstruction of the State initiative, which was presented by Mr. Vít Šimral and Mr. Lukáš Kraus. In addition, participants had the chance to learn about a local initiative for better urban planning from Mr. Michal Volf from the NGO Břevnov, whereas the government experience was shared by Ms. Radana Kubová, Office of Goverment, and Mr. Jan Outlý.

The study tour focused on learning from the V4 partners about their legal and institutional framework for CSO involvement in policymaking, its enforcement, practical problems and obstacles for CSOs to effectively participate in policymaking. Slovak and Czech NGOs and state institutions shared their best practices, whereas a special focus was dedicated to the effects of EU membership to the quality of policymaking in Slovakia and Czech Republic and CSOs’ contribution in this respect. The study tour represented a significant opportunity to exchange views and experiences both among the colleagues from the WB6 with the civil servants as well as among the TEN representatives. In particular, the participation of civil servants, representatives of respective policymaking institutions from the Western Balkans, was aimed to raise knowledge of these individuals on comparative policymaking systems and contribute to cooperation between the state and civil institutions.

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Decision of the Steering Committee: Montenegro suspended in the Open Government Partnership (OGP)

As the Institute Alternative (IA) announced in February this year, due to failure to meet its obligations, Montenegro lost its place in the initiative involving 75 countries and gained the status of “inactive” country. Loss of status in the initiative is the ultimate measure of the OGP Steering Committee, which aims to discredit states that fail to comply with the agreed obligations.

The Government has given no explanation for such action, nor has anyone been held responsible for ignoring obligations in the global initiative of which Montenegro voluntarily became part of.

The official announcement published in Washington D.C. on June 29 states that the Steering Committee of the Open Government Partnership decided, by consensus, that Montenegro will regretfully be made inactive in OGP. The reason for this was that it acted contrary to the OGP processes for three consecutive action plan cycles and failed to deliver the National Action Plan since November 2014.

As stated, the Steering Board “welcomed the high-level commitment of the government of Montenegro to re-engage with the Open Government Partnership, as demonstrated by a letter of H.E. Prime Minister Duško Marković, received by the OGP co-chairs on June 22, 2017.” However, “in maintaining a consistent and fair approach to enforcing the OGP requirements asked of all participating countries”, the OGP Steering Committee decided to suspend Montenegro’s membership in the initiative under provisions contained in the OGP Articles of Governance adopted in 2015.

Montenegro is the second country to be made inactive under this rule, while Turkey was the first one. Some of the participating states are USA, UK, Norway and Italy which are already implementing their third action plan, but also Germany, France and Netherlands which also recognize the need for further reforms in their countries.

The Steering Committee announced that the Steering Committee Co-Chairs will send a letter to Prime Minister Marković explaining the decision and offering their support during the development of the country’s new National Action Plan, so that country may again become active in this multilateral initiative.

The aim of OGP is to promote transparency, accountability and citizens’ participation in decision-making processes. The initiative was formally launched on September 20, 2011 at the proposal of the then USA President Barack Obama.

Dina Bajramspahić
Public Policy Researcher