Results of the Regional Public Administration Reform Monitoring
This brief is a summary of the key findings from the comprehensive, year-long monitoring and research focused on public administration reform (PAR) done within the WeBER project - the detailed report is available in the National PAR Monitor for Montenegro while comparisons and insights regarding PAR in Western Balkan can be found in our regional report.
The focus of our interest in PAR rests strongly on the citizen-facing aspects of public administration, particularly examining issues of transparency, information provision to the public, citizen participation, accountability, equal opportunity and integrity. The report is divided into six chapters, pertaining to the core areas of PAR: 1) strategic framework for public administration reform, 2) policy development and coordination, 3) public service and human resource management, 4) accountability, 5) service delivery, and 6) public finance management.
The monitoring was done between September 2017 and September 2018. Findings predominantly relate to 2017 and the first half of 2018, except in the analysis of Government reports, where 2016 was included as the base year due to the governments’ reporting cycles. Within the indicators that monitor the regularity of reporting practices, a minimum of two years preceding the monitoring year were taken into account.
”Eight years of Law on Parliamentary Oversight of Security and Defense Sector
– Did the Committee lose its significance?’’
Venue: PR Centre (Grand hall), Josip Broz Boulevard, 23A, Podgorica Time: Monday, 24th December, 2018 at 12am
The Institute Alternative (IA) is organizing a press conference on the occasion of the 8 years since adoption of the Law on Parliamentary Oversight of Security and Defense Sector.
The press conference will be held at the PR Center on Monday, 24th December, starting at 12am.
Montenegro is the only country in the region that regulated this important and sensitive area by law, and the legislator’s intention was to strengthen the control role of the Parliament of Montenegro and have more efficient oversight of the security and defense sector. On 22nd December 2010, all MPs in Parliament voted for the adoption of this law. However, eight years later, the enthusiasm for law enforcement appears to be exhausted.
Special attention will be paid to the following topics:
• What did the Parliamentary Committee on Security and Defense Sector do in 2018 and what did it fail to do?
• What control mechanisms have been implemented and what is their reach?
• To what extent is the Committee involved in key decisions related to security sector reforms – active participant or voiceless observer?
• Does the Committee contribute to greater accountability of the security sector, in particular the Police?
This activity is carried out under the POINTPULSE project funded by the European Union, through the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA), within the Civil Society Facility (CSF) Programme. The contents do not necessary reflect the views of the European Union, and are solely the responsibility of POINTPULSE network members.
Should you need any further information, please do not hesitate to contact us at info@institut-alternativa.org or at 020/268-686.
You can also follow us on social networks using hashtags #pointpulse and #balkancops.
The PAR Monitor is the result of research undertaken over the past year by the Think for Europe Network (of which IA is a member), with the goal of providing a systematic civil society monitoring of public administration reforms (PAR) in the Western Balkans.
This exercise was motivated by the need to strengthen domestic, bottom-up pressure from the civil society sector in the long run, in order to ensure that post-EU accession, when the leverage of the EU’s conditionality in the governance area weakens, the reform drive endures.
Based on a robust methodological approach, combining quantitative and qualitative techniques, and building on the EU’s Principles of public administration, the PAR Monitor measures the countries’ state of play in PAR, benchmarks them against each other, and provides recommendations for improvement.
The PAR Monitor also ensures complementarity with the monitoring carried out by SIGMA/OECD and the European Commission. It therefore provides a citizen and civil society focused perspective on the EU-SIGMA principles. The PAR Monitor comprises an overall comparative regional report and six country reports, each including findings on the 23 compound indicators designed by the WeBER project team to monitor a selection of 21 EU-SIGMA principles.
This document provides a summary of the key regional findings in the six areas of PAR: Strategic framework of PAR, Policy development and coordination, Public service and human resource management, Accountability, Service Delivery and Public Finance Management.
All the national findings can be accessed via the Regional PAR Scoreboard at www.par-monitor.org
Podgorica, PR press service – Nine civil society organizations from six municipalities have been supported to implement small grants within the IA’s project “Money Watch – Civil Society, Guarding the Budget”.
The implementation of these projects is supposed to contribute to the reduction of corruption at the local and national levels, through more effective oversight of public spending.
Stevo Muk, president of managing board of the IA stated, at the press conference organized at the occasion of the award of small grants, that the management of the budget and public finances should not be the exclusive competence of a narrow circle of professional organizations and institutions.
“Monitoring of the preparation, adoption and management of the budget must become an integral part of the work of all organizations, which monitor public policies and advocate changes”, Muk stated.
He explained that the total value of the projects, including the co-financing provided by the project holders, is 94.374 EUR.
“The individual value of projects ranges from 9.000 to 11.000 euro. Civil society organizations will carry out projects lasting up to six months, from January to July 2019, at the territory of local self-goverments of Podgorica, Bijelo Polje, Berane, Kolasin, Herceg Novi and Ulcinj”, he added.
Milan Mikan Medenica, executive director of NGO Natura, said that the project “Common Money – Common Responsibility”, aims to increase the level of civic participation in the process of budget creation at the local level.
“We want to encourage citizens to take a more active part in monitoring of local public spending. Some of the planned activities are trainings for NGOs, citizens, and representatives of local government, as well as promotional activities”, Medenica said.
Zdravko Janjušević, executive director of the Democratic Center of Bijelo Polje, said that the project “More transparent concessions on the exploitation of gravel and forests” will examine the amount of concession-related fees in this area.
“With the realization of the project, we want to achieve higher level of transparency in the area of concessions for the exploitation of gravel and sand from Lim river and for the exploitation of forests at the territories of Berane and Bijelo Polje”, Janjušević said.
Marina Vuksanovic, president of NGO NADA, announced that the project “Our Money – Yours or Ours Responsibility” aims to contribute to greater transparency in the execution of the local budget of Herceg Novi and to the more efficient public spending.
“The realization of the project will increase the level of understanding of the budget cycle among citizens. It will create preconditions for the transparency and more open attitude of local government to incorporate practices of participatory budgeting and civic monitoring of public expenditure, and to improve realization of the capital budget”, Vuksanović said.
Elvir Zečević, executive director of the Regional Development Agency – Business Association of Ulcinj, said that the project “Civil Society Monitor of Public Expenditure” aims to strengthen capacities of approx. 20 Ulcinj-based civil society organizations for participation in monitoring of public expenditure.
“The project will equip representatives of civil society organizations with knowledge in the field of planning and monitoring of public expenditure. They will exchange experiences with organizations operating at the national level. They will also be familiarized with practices from Croatia, which is already a member of the European Union”, Zečević pointed out.
Milka Tadić Mijović, president of the Center for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro, whose project “How is Our Budget Spent: (Not so) Public Expenditure in Montenegro” is also supported within the sub-granting programme, pointed out that the state debt increased by more than two billion euro in ten years.
“Montenegro has so far financed much of its public expenditure with the money accumulated through public debt, which is a serious issue. Part of the public debt was used to finance the capital budget”, Tadić Mijović said.
She said that, through realization of the project, oversight and transparency of public spending at the national level will be improved. This will be achieved by expert analysis, investigative articles and regular public dissemination of information on public expenditure, public debt structure and projects financed from the capital budget.
Mila Radulović, secretary general of the Association of Professional Journalists of Montenegro, said that journalists lack knowledge about the budget planning, which is why, in her opinion, reporting on this topic is superficial. The Association will thus educate journalists and citizens to monitor and read the budget.
“We are partners on this project with the Union of Doctors of Medicine of Montenegro, which has already opened the area of public finances, especially the issue of corruption. The importance of healthcare and the increase of health budget over the years is well known, but we do not know how this budget is spent”, Radulović said.
Aleksandra Pavićević, executive director of the Association of Youth with Disabilities of Montenegro (AYDM), said that the project “Our budget Is Our issue!” focuses on control of the expenditure of the money allocated to the Fund for Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment of Persons with Disabilities. It will also encompass implementation of the Law on professional rehabilitation and employment of people with disabilities.
“AYDM intends to carry out the first comprehensive research and analysis of the financial framework of the Law as well as the research on special contributions for the employment of people with disabilities. We will also implement public advocacy and media campaigns, in order to launch public discussion and enable control of special contributions for the employment of people with disabilities”, Pavicevic said.
Ilija Vukčević, executive director of Institute for Legal Studies (ILS), said that the Institute, by implementing the project “Games of Chance – how to achieve a more efficient and transparent system”, aims to improve the public finance system in Montenegro, by specifically addressing collection and expenditure of public funds in the area of games of chance.
“We will conduct comparative analysis of the legal framework and of the overall system of games of chance; we will establish a number of direct contacts and meetings with all stakeholders in the field. Everything will be systematized within an analysis, due to be presented in May 2019”, Vukčević explained.
Elvis Berisha, executive director of the Roma youth organization “Walk With Us – Phiren amenca”, stated that Roma inclusion cannot happen if the members of Roma community are excluded from the allocation of budget which directly concerns them.
“Through the project “Transparent Public Expenditure on Roma Inclusion Policies”, we will create and make an analysis of the 2017 expenditure of public money for Roma inclusion. We will present key findings and propose certain recommendations”, Berisha said.
“Money Watch – Civil Society, Guarding the Budget” is a project implemented by the Institute Alternative, in partnership with the Institute for Public Finances from Zagreb and NGO New horizon from Ulcinj, in cooperation with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Public Administration.
The project is being implemented with the financial support of the European Union through the Instrument for Civil Society within IPA 2016, and from now on, with the co-financing of the Ministry of Public Administration.
On Friday, 21 December 2018, we will organise a press conference to award grants to nine civil society organisations (CSOs) within our project “Money Watch – Civil Society, Guarding the Budget”, financially supported by the European Union.
Press conference will begin at 11 AM and will take place in PR Centre, Josip Broz Boulevard 23A, in Podgorica.
Nine CSOs will be supported through this Small Grants Facility to implement projects and initiatives aimed at increasing participation of the citizens, civil society and the media in the processes of budget planning and public spending oversight.
The budget and public finances should not be the exclusive competence of a narrow circle of professional organisations and institutions – monitoring of the preparation, adoption and management of the budget must become an integral part of the work of all organisations, which monitor public policies and advocate changes.
Through this project component, Institute Alternative wants to financially support such initiatives regardless of the organisations’ specific thematic scope and area of operation and to encourage CSOs to perform budgetary analysis and effective scrutiny of public spending, in order to better understand the state-of-the-art in their field of interest.
At the conference, grantees’ representatives will present their projects and their contribution to more effective oversight of public spending. Topics to be covered by these projects include public spending oversight at the national and local level, citizens’ participation in budget planning and control of budget execution, oversight of the concessions, games of chance and money allocated to the Fund for Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment of Persons with Disabilities, as well as public debt, capital projects investmentsetc.
Stevo Muk, president of the managing board at Institute alternative, took part in the work of the Assembly of the NGO Coalition – Cooperating Towards Goal. During the discussion, Muk gave suggestions for more intensive communication within the Coalition, the renewal and expansion of Coalition membership, more efficient functioning and collecting the necessary funds for the regular functioning of the Coalition.
During the discussion he pointed out the need to carefully analyze the scope of application of the Law on NGO’s regarding the financing of projects of NGO’s in the decentralized system (through public calls for financing, announced by Ministries) in 2018.
In the discussion, it was emphasized that the Coalition in 2018 succeeded in to ensure, by public pressure, that the Government of Montenegro in accordance with the Law on Non-Governmental Organizations, announces a public call for co-financing projects supported by the European Union.
NGO Coalition – Cooperating Towards Goal, has been acting since 2006 as the most numerous coalition of NGOs in Montenegro, with the aim of improving the legal, political and financial framework for the work of non-governmental organizations.
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Milka Tadić Mijović, president of the Center for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro, whose project “How is Our Budget Spent: (Not so) Public Expenditure in Montenegro” is also supported within the sub-granting programme, pointed out that the state debt increased by more than two billion euro in ten years.