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Institute Alternative in Belfast: Monitoring Public Assemblies

Aleksandra Vavić and Ivana Bogojević, Public Policy Researchers at the Institute Alternative, participated in a training on observing of public assemblies, held in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

The training was organized by the European Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ECNL) in the framework of the project “Monitoring Right To Free Assembly”, which aims to assess the environment for assembly in eleven countries: Montenegro, Serbia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Albania, Kosovo, Armenia, Moldova, Belarus and Ukraine.

The focus of this training was monitoring of a parade organized by the Orange Order (Protestants), through mainly Catholic parts of Belfast, a city divided and characterized by conflicts between the two communities for years. In the process of preparation for the monitoring of the parade, participants held meetings with key actors: representatives of the Parades Commission, protests decision-making body and a representative of the Police Service of Northern Ireland. Conversations were also held with a representative of the parade organiser, the Orange Order and their opponents, a representative of the Sinn Féin party. The parade gathered around 600 people, while several dozen people watched this gathering on the move.

Training was conducted with a view to observing public assemblies in all the countries where the project is being implemented, hence, the reports from assemblies in Montenegro will be an integral part of this year’s report for Montenegro within this project.

The project was launched by the International Center for Non-Profit Law (ICNL) through the Civic Space Initiative, with the support of the Government of Sweden, and presents a continuation of the 2016 and 2017 research that mapped the burning issues in the area of public assembly regarding legal framework and practical problem ranging from registration and banning of assemblies to policing them. The research resulted in a series of recommendations for the Ministry of the Interior, the Police Administration, independent control bodies and civil society.

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Why We Are Against the Proposed “Optimization” of Public Administration

Stevo Muk, a representative of Institute Alternative in the Inter-Departmental expert team, voted against the Draft Optimization Plan for Public Administration in Montenegro for the period 2018-2020.

The Draft Public Administration Optimization Plan is largely based on restricting employment until March 1st 2019,   non-extension of fixed-term contracts, retirement of employees who meet conditions, mutually agreed termination of employment and severance payments to employees interested in terminating employment in this manner.

Other measures are presented in a rather general terms, many of which are already provided by valid regulation and hence do not give an additional value to this document.

We recall, with the current Strategy for Public Administration Reform, the Government promised to reduce the number of public administration employees by 3 183 by 2020, in relation to 51 486 public administration employees at the end of 2017, whereby this number does not include public enterprises at the central level.

We believe that the envisaged general, horizontal measures might even hit the target, that is, the planned target value of reducing the number of employees, but they will not achieve the goal. Namely, substantial “optimization” should consist of transforming the administration in a way that it achieves its full functionality and maximum effectiveness.

Stevo Muk, President of the Managing Board of the Institute Alternative, in his statement regarding the draft document pointed out that the plan is not based on analysis of prior experiences and effects of same or similar measures previously implemented.

“Unfortunately, there is not even an estimate of the number of public sector employees who meet the retirement conditions,” he noted, recalling that this data exists only for state administration bodies.

“This plan does not give an answer to the question of whether employees who will end their employment in this way are the same ones whose work is not needed,” Muk said.

Publication: Enchanted Circle of Rationalisation

He stressed that in this way the public administration could find itself in a situation where those whose work is needed are among the cadre that terminates its employment in the proposed way, so in practice they will be engaged again in some other, less transparent manner.

These manners include significant employment of retired persons (even as heads of certain state institutions), through employment agencies and in other ways which were not uncovered in the analysis that should have preceded the adoption of the optimization plan.

It would be particularly difficult to ensure the implementation of measures on the local level, as the Government does not have mechanisms to follow the ban on employment, nor has the authority to impose this ban on local self-governments, besides the 16 municipalities that signed tax debt rescheduling agreement.

In its analysis “Enchanted Circle of Rationalization”, prepared within the framework of the project “Civil Society for Good Government: To Act and Account”, Institute Alternative presented lessons learned from previous attempts to downsize the number of employees in the Montenegrin public administration.

“In order to be successful, the optimization process of the public sector must be comprehensive”, as concluded in the analysis, with remark that exclusion of public enterprises at the central level, as well as of certain institutions (the Central Bank, the Armed Forces) from current optimization attempt is a major drawback, which could negatively impact the whole system.

“This is especially important for public enterprises that act as monopolies, which could become “sanctuaries” for those dismissed from the national and local administration”, reads the analysis.

Institute Alternative Team

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TV Show “Reflector”

Decision of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption and Dismissal of Ćalović Marković – continuation of the fight against Government critics?

Ana Đurnić, Public Policy Researcher in IA, was a guest in the TV Vijesti Show “Reflector”. The topic was “APC decision and dismissal Ćalović Marković – continuation of the fight against those with opposing views?”. 

Some of the issues discussed during the show were: why is the Anti-Corruption Committee rushed to dismiss Ćalović-Marković instead of waiting for the decision of the Administrative Court, what kind of messages do such decisions of the Anti-Corruption Agency (APC) and parliament committees send, have Montenegrin institutions been in “fighting mode” against the Government critics for almost a full year, etc.

One of the topics that we shed light on during the show is what kind of image of non-governmental organizations and their activities the Government tries to present to citizens, and how do the negative messages of the highest state officials about the Montenegrin media and non-governmental organizations affect the institutions. One of the issues discussed was whether these messages were the cause of the ongoing persecution of the Government critics by the Montenegrin institutions, primarily APC and parliament committees, since September 2017.

Besides Ana, guests in the studio were Vanja Ćalović Marković, Executive Director of NGO MANS and analyst, Boris Marić.

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Enchanted Circle of Rationalisation

Montenegro’s public sector employs about 60 thousand people, and spends more than half a billion euro on salaries every year, a figure that continues to increase. The Government promised to reduce the number or employees in the public sector by 5% at the national level, and by 10% at the local level by 2020, i.e. to let go about 3200 employees from the public service.

This is not the first time the Government has made such promises. The promise of the 2013 Public Sector Reorganisation - to cut staff by 10% - remained empty words on paper. Sectoral initiatives launched since then, such as the rationalisation of the school network and reduction of employment levels in education also failed to yield results.

Employment in the public sector represents one of key political resources, one which is used (and abused) throughout the government’s term, but is especially linked to the election process, during which votes are bought with promises of employment in the public sector.

The current process of optimisation, instead of systematically addressing the problem of human resource planning in the public administration, wants to achieve the planned cuts through quick one-off fixes (early retirements, severance payments, abolishment of fixed-term contracts).

This analysis presents the current trends in the optimisation process and brings to attention the lessons we could learn from the previous attempts at downsizing, including some critical flaws that will doom the process to failure unless some fundamental changes are made in the way it is implemented.

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Announcement: Police – Integrated Body, Yes or No?

Institute Alternative is organizing a panel discussion with the topic on “Police – Integrated Body, Yes or No?” which will take place in Hotel Podgorica, Montenegro, on 14 of June at 11 AM.

The topics of the discussion are following:

  • What are the key advantages and disadvantages of the concept of “integrated bodies”?
  • What are the effects of this model on accountability, efficiency, and optimization?
  • What is the experience of the Ministry of Interior and the Police in this matter
  • What arguments made the Ministry of Interior decide to keep the existing concept of integrated organs in the Draft Law on Internal Affairs?
  • On what basis has the Ministry of Public Administration proposed the abolition of integrated organs in the Draft Law on State Administration?
  • What are the conclusions of the Draft Analysis of the Functional and Financial Effects of introducing institute of “integrated administration bodies” into the Montenegrin system of administration?

These and other questions will be addressed by:

Danijela Nedjeljković-Vukčević, Director General in the Ministry of Public Administration,

Danilo Ćupić, Director General in the Ministry of Interior,

Branislav Radulović, member of the Senate of the State Audit Institution,

Radovan Ljumović, Head of the Department for Analysis, Improvement of Work and Development in the Police Directorate.

 

Moderator: Dina Bajramspahić, Public Policy Researcher in the Institute Alternative.

We  invite you to attend the panel and, if motivated by the discussion, share your arguments in favor of solution you find the most appropriate. Contact us at: info@institut-alternativa.org

Please be informed that simultaneous translation will be provided.

The panel discussion is organized with the support of the European Union through the Civil Society Facility Program within the framework of the project “Western Balkans Pulse for Police Integrity and Trust – POINTPULSE”.

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Let’s talk about effects!

...or gaps in reporting on public administration reform in Montenegro

Reporting on the implementation of reforms is an important mechanism for timely prevention of the potential negative outcomes, improvement of the implementation, but also creation of the basis for a comprehensive impact assessment, which should precede the adoption of the new decisions in the provided area. In this regard, in the context of the public policy cycle, this “tool” refers to the implementation stage of certain policies and their monitoring, but it should also be an “introduction” to the process of impact assessment - evaluation. 

Result-oriented and impact-oriented reporting in Montenegro is underdeveloped. SIGMA assessed that the first report on the implementation of the Public Administration Reform Strategy focuses exclusively on the implementation of activities. With regard to the fulfilment of the European public administration principles in Montenegro, the rating for reporting on the implementation of strategies has deteriorated, because the reports discussed by the Government in 2015 and 2016 focus exclusively on the implementation of activities and not on the outcomes achieved as a result of these activities. When it comes to reports on the work of institutions, it is especially highlighted that the annual reports on the work of the bodies subordinated to the ministries are “process-oriented” and overloaded with statistical data, which, however, are not linked to specific, measurable objectives or performance indicators. 

Bearing in mind the aforementioned shortcomings of reporting on the implementation of strategies in Montenegro, the aim of the analysis is to demonstrate the gaps in the current system and data management, and indicate the ways to make improvements, by using concrete examples of (non)reporting on the key measures and outcomes of public administration reform. This could ensure that the reporting on the Strategy, but also on the work of the specific stakeholders, could ensure an informed decision-making and evidence-based discussion.