On November 15 (Tuesday) Institute alternative organised a meeting within the project Public procurement under spotlight – Making Watchdogs Work!, with the support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Serbia and Montenegro within the MATRA Rule of Law program.
The aim of this meeting was an exchange of ideas about the best cooperation models between all relevant institutional and non-institutional, civic actors important for the public procurement oversight, and to increase their interaction, exchange of information and know how on potential corruption cases and irregularities in public procurement, and to jointly find solutions for further action.
Almost 30 representatives took part in the meeting, coming from Directorate for Public Procurement Policy and the Budget Inspection of the Ministry of Finance, the Inspection for Public Procurement, the Commission for the Protection of Rights in Public Procurement Procedures, the State Audit Institution, the Special Police Department, the Special State Prosecutor’s Office, the media and non-governmental organizations.
They expressed their support for the project and affirmed the need to network and organise meetings within this structure, which for the first time includes representatives from institutions in charge of repressive part of fight against corruption in public procurement and enounced active participation in further activities.
Participants jointly ascertained that some of the most common irregularities and potentially corruptive activities in public procurement procedures are preparing too specific technical specifications which suit only one bidder, so-called false offers that simulate competitiveness of procedures, while in fact, they are a product of arrangement between the bidders; dividing procurement subjects to avoid open and implement less transparent and competitive procedures. The need for the active monitoring of the public procurement contract implementation, as well as sanctioning bidders for poor implementation of the contract, was particularly emphasized.
Project Public procurements under spotlight – Making Watchdogs Work! aims to to empower and motivate watchdogs to combat corruption and undue influence in public procurement. The project specifically aims to enhance dialogue on corruption in public procurement and to encourage institutional response to corruption, as well as to influence debate on public procurement policy and legislation.
Organised criminal groups (OCGs) from Serbia and Montenegro play a significant role in the life of crime in the Western Balkans. When the conflict between the Montenegrin clans ‘Škaljari’ and ‘Kavač’ started in 2014, greatly impacting the Serbian criminal underworld, everyone expected a more intensive cooperation between the competent institutions of these two countries. Although the necessary international agreements were already signed, at the beginning a certain level of mistrust between the institutions prevented cooperation. In this sense, we analysed the cooperation between the police forces and the prosecutor’s offices of Serbia and Montenegro in the fight against organised crime (OC). Namely, the fight against OC occupies a high place on the political agenda of state officials of both countries. This is supported by the meetings of their ministers of interior affairs/police directors, which are held at least once a year, while operational meetings of police representatives are organised several times per year. The law enforcement authorities of Montenegro address their Serbian colleagues more frequently in connection with cases related to OC, and in that aspect it is possible to improve the cooperation between the prosecutor’s offices. To conclude, cooperation is continuous, but there are still cases whose solution depends on political will.
Key conclusion is that essential cooperation between the police and the judicial authorities is actually insufficient, as there is a lack of cooperation in the investigation phase in cases of OC, including parallel investigations.
Despite the high corruption levels, observed through SELDI’s 2021 Corruption Monitoring System (CMS), the Western Balkan countries continue to lack a coherent approach to tackling the problem. A number of institutional and legal improvements have been made in the framework of the EU accession (e.g. vetting of the justice system, increased length of sentences, linking the value of bribes and the punishment, defining subtler forms of corruption, regulation of the origin of assets of public officials, adopting conflict of interest legislation and lobbying laws). Still, the newly adopted laws and strategies, and the newly created specialised institutions are yet to bear fruit in decreasing corruption.
The current policy brief further underlines that anti-corruption plans are being implemented in an uncoordinated manner, with responsibilities being split among multiple institutions, and promotes the sharing of good practices among the Western Balkan countries.
Admirim Aliti, Minister of Information Society and Administration, North Macedonia
Belgrade, 8-9 November 2022 – “As WeBER, we have matured as of 2015 in the sense that we realised that as CSOs, we cannot speak without the voice of citizens. We drew a precious lesson from citizens’ consultations. We could be much more persuasive, and a bottom-up pressure could be created in a more effective way only if we manage to empower citizens.” With these words, Milena Lazarevic summed up the aim of the Third Regional WeBER Conference Citizens First: Better administrations through citizen consultations.The Conference held in Belgrade on 8-9 November, the same as the first one in 2018 and the second in 2021, was organised by the European Policy Centre – CEP Belgrade, WeBER Project Coordinator. In two days, the WeBER Conference brought together 51 regional and EU experts and officials and hosted more than 180 guests.
The Conference was launched by the keynote speeches of Milena Lazarevic, WeBER2.0 Team Leader and Programme Director of the European Policy Centre – CEP, Admirim Aliti, Minister of Information Society and Administration of North Macedonia, Maciej Popowski, Acting Director-General for Neighborhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR), and Gregor Virant, Head of SIGMA/OECD.
As the conference title implies, the central topic was how to bring public administration closer to the citizens based on their own experience shared within the citizen consultations conducted at the local level across the region while using the EU’s good practice of implementing European Citizen Consultations. Gaetane Ricard-Nihoul, Deputy Head of the Unit of Citizens’ Dialogues in the European Commission, Maike Brakhan, Project Manager at the Missions Publiques, Kalypso Nicolaidis, Professor at the European University Institute and Milena Lazarevic, discussed the outcomesin a panel moderated by Corina Stratulat from European Policy Centre – EPC Brussels.
“We need to develop a vision of a pan-European system of deliberative and participatory democracy. The role of CSOs is to bring the citizens into a more inclusive, common space”, commented Nicolaidis upon Lazarevic’s presentation on experience with citizen consultations. Altogether 25 of them were conducted with the assistance of the WeBER2.0 local grantees.
Later on, Jesper Johnson, Senior Policy Analyst at SIGMA/OECD, presented the SIGMA data portal and policy simulator launched in September 2022. It involves interactive graphs and tools that allow national administrations, civil society and those supporting public governance reforms to simulate which reforms are necessary to improve the performance of public governance in the future.
The first day of the Conference was closed with breakout sessions on each area of public administration reform, where WeBER2.0 researchers presented their findings of the new PAR Monitor by the PAR area. Presentations were followed by a discussion of experts and representatives of public administration from the region.
The second day of the Conference began with two parallel sessions on public administration reform at the local level. In one of these sessions, WeBER2.0 grantees presented reports summarising the outcomes of citizen consultations. The other one, titled Cities and municipalities in Serbia in focus / Public administration reform at the local government level, involved the presentation of the findings of the research conducted by the CEP and its project’s partners in 17 cities and municipalities in Serbia as part of the Public Administration Monitoring for Better Local Governance project. Results were later discussed by representatives of municipalities and project partners, as well as Jana Belcheva Andreevska, Smart City and Digitalization Officer at the Network of Associations of Local Authorities of South-East Europe (NALAS). This panel was moderated by independent journalist and CSO expert Nenad Sebek.
Two following sessions held on the second day of the Conference were dedicated to the citizens’ personal experiences and individual stories related to public administration. In the beginning, the video recorded by local grantees (soon available online) introduced the personal stories of the citizens via short interviews. It was later reflected by panellists Tiina Randma Liiv, Professor at the Tallinn University of Technology and Maja Handjiska-Trendafilova, Director at the Regional School of Public Administration – ReSPA later.
“We should distinguish between the role of citizens versus customers. Citizens have a much broader role. They are not only customers but also service owners; that’s why they are both policy takers and policymakers”, highlighted Liiv. Handjiska-Trendafilova agreed, “Citizens should self-identify with the role of the co-creator of policies, not only with the service-user role!”
The debate was followed by introducing the study, which analysed more than 6,000 citizens’ experiences across the Western Balkans gathered through the platform citizens.par-monitor.org, as well as street actions. After Sava Mitrović, Junior Researcher (CEP) and Dragana Jaćimović, Project Associate, Institute Alternative in Podgorica, presented the analysis outcome, Florian Hauser from DG NEAR and Simonida Kacarska, Director of the European Policy Institute – EPI discussed the citizens’ (dis)satisfaction with service delivery and recommendations. Nenad Sebek also moderated these panels.
Kacarska pointed out the problem with the hierarchy structure of public administration in which the citizens are only viewed as consumers. According to her words, it creates a very unpleasant environment when utilising public services. Hauser also highlighted the problem with “crazy legislation” concerning several aspects of public services across the Western Balkans. “People in Western Balkans complain about the humiliation they feel when dealing with public service. It shouldn’t work this way; public administration is here to help them solve the problem together”, said Hauser.
Nicola Bertolini, Head of Cooperation at the EU Delegation in Belgrade, and Milena Lazarevic delivered the Conference’s closing remarks. “After 15 years in the region, I have learned that we need somebody to pick up on citizens who seem not to be mobilized, shaken or involved enough. Citizens first is a very appealing title since we must put citizens at the forefront and channel their voices and desires better. You will have our support in the process,” highlighted Bertolini during his closing speech.
The second day of the conference began with parallel sessions in which public administration reform at the local level was discussed. In one of the sessions, WeBER2.0 grantees presented the results and reports of citizen consultations. In the second parallel session, Cities and municipalities in Serbia in focus / Public administration reform at the local government level, the findings of the research conducted by the CEP in 17 cities and municipalities in Serbia as part of the Public Administration Monitoring for Better Local Governance project were presented and then discussed by representatives of municipalities, project partners, as well as Jana Belcheva Andreevska, Smart City and Digitalization Officer at the Network of Associations of Local Authorities of South-East Europe (NALAS). This panel was moderated by independent journalist and CSO expert Nenad Sebek.
Tiina Randma Liiv, Maja Handjiska-Trendafilova, Nenad Sebek
In two subsequent sessions on the second day, the Conference focused on the personal experiences and stories of the citizens themselves – firstly in the presentations of regional video with stories recorded by local grantees (which will soon be available online), discussed by Tiina Randma Liiv, Professor at the Tallinn University of Technology and Maja Handjiska-Trendafilova, Director at the Regional School of Public Administration – ReSPA. After that, the analysis of more than 5,000 experiences of citizens from the entire Western Balkans collected through the platforms citizens.par-monitor.org, as well as street actions, was presented by Sava Mitrović, Researcher (CEP) and Dragana Jaćimović, Project Associate, Alternative Institute, Montenegro. Citizens’ (dis)satisfaction with service delivery and recommendations were discussed by Florian Hauser from DG NEAR and
Simonida Kacarska, Director of the European Policy Institute – EPI. Nenad Sebek also moderated these panels.
“We should distinguish between the role of citizens versus customers. Citizens have a much broader role. They are not only customers but also the
Nicola Bertolini
owners of the services; that’s why they are policy takers and policymakers. We should distinguish between the role of citizens versus customers. Citizens have a much broader role. They are not only customers but also owners of the services; that’s why they are not only policy takers but also policymakers.”, highlighted Liiv. Handjiska-Trendafilova agrees: “Citizens should self-identify with the role of the co-creator of policies, not only with the service-user role!”
Kacarska pointed out that the problem is that “there is a hierarchy structure of public administration in which the citizens are only viewed as consumers, and that creates an unpleasant environment for them actually to use the public services”, while Hauser talked about the problem with “crazy legislations” in many aspects of public services across the Western Balkans. “People in Western Balkans complain about the humiliation they feel when dealing with public service. It shouldn’t work this way; public administration is here to help them solve their problem together”, said Hauser.
Nicola Bertolini, Head of Cooperation at the EU Delegation in Belgrade and Milena Lazarevic gave the conference’s closing remarks. Bertolini said that “democracies in the Western Balkans are still developing”, and there are still a lot of challenges. “Citizens need to be first, and we need to channel their voices better. Civil society should be very responsible – it needs to fulfil its role of representativeness. You will have our support in the process,” said Bertolini.
WeBER 2.0 project – Western Balkan Civil Society Empowerment for a Reformed Public Administration – is dedicated to strengthening participatory democracy through greater involvement of civil society in policy development and implementation of public administration reform in the Western Balkans. WeBER in Montenegro is lead by Institute Alternative and at regional level it consists of partners from Think for Europe Network, with the support of European Policy Centre (EPC) from Brussels.
Civil society organizations have become critical protagonists in the fight against organized crime and corruption. However, less than 1% out of all 100,000 registered CSOs in the Western Balkans deal with these topics. The current policy brief highlights the challenges that CSOs’ engaged in anti-corruption face, such as pressure from governments, dismissive attitude towards their policy recommendations, and even concerns for their experts’ safety. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has also affected CSOs’ financial viability since donors are revising their budgets toward new geopolitical areas and topics.
The analysis also notes that the Western Balkans represent one of the most vulnerable regions in Europe to foreign malign influence. Foreign authoritarian states, primarily Russia and China, have intensified their sharp power influence in derailing faith in liberal democracy and presenting authoritarianism as a more viable political alternative. This has been particularly evident in the process of capturing Balkan media. Kremlin has been able to gain a foothold in the Balkan media space, intimidating journalistic independence and disseminating its preferred narratives.
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The aim of this meeting was an exchange of ideas about the best cooperation models between all relevant institutional and non-institutional, civic actors important for the public procurement oversight, and to increase their interaction, exchange of information and know how on potential corruption cases and irregularities in public procurement, and to jointly find solutions for further action.
