Year: 2022

Institute Alternative (IA) has remained committed to its mission of strengthening democracy and good governance through research and policy analysis.

During fifteen years since its establishment, the IA has launched and implemented 105 projects aimed at reforms of public administration and judiciary, enhancement of transparency and accountability of public finances, parliamentary oversight, better social policy and democratic control of security sector with specific focus on police.

We were established primarily as a think tank, to provide evidence about public policies through research and monitoring and to advocate for their better implementation. Such approach of our organization would not be possible if development of our capacities had not been supported by the Open Society Foundation through the “Think Tank Fund“ during our formative years.

We have published 146 studies, reports and analyses and communicated almost 1500 recommendations to the decision makers. We have participated in 29 working groups for drafting of laws and strategies, while providing contribution to Montenegro’s EU integration efforts through participation in the working groups for chapters 23 (judiciary and fundamental rights), 24 (justice, freedom and security), 5 (public procurement) and 32 (financial oversight). We have further communicated our recommendations through memberships in the Council for Public Administration Reform and Council for Cooperation Between the Government and NGOs. Since December 2021, president of the IA’s Managing Board has been appointed member of the Prosecutorial Council.

We have launched four specific online platforms. My Town is a pioneering endeavour of citizen friendly presentation of budgets of local governments. My Administration serves as an address for citizens to report problems in their encounters with public administration. We have also unlocked thousands of pages of non-searchable data on public finances through “My Money” platform.

In 2019, we have also launched a page on public enterprises, which provides overview of key information about companies majority-owned by the state. Key indicators of the work of these companies are collected via numerous Freedom of Information (FoI) requests, given the fact that neither the Government, as their founder, nor the companies themselves proactively publish basic information. This page presents the transparency index for each company as well as data on revenues, expenses, managerial structure, employees and salaries.

Institute Alternative has provided suggestions and comments aimed at improving 15 strategic documents and 26 national and local legal acts, including systemic laws in the areas of judiciary, public administration and public sector salaries. Through our events and publications, we were among the first ones to launch debate and offer normative solutions for better relationship between different branches of power through anticipated laws on Parliament and the Government.

In parallel to our research work, we have been committed to building capacities of other civil society organizations, civil servants and politicians. Our Public Policy School saw a total of 114 participants through its six generations. In 2018, we have organized our first Open Budget School for 27 participants from non-governmental sector and the media. The next edition of this School was organized for political parties and parliamentary staff, gathering a total of 20 participants.

Our trainings of gender mainstreaming of public policies have been attended by 120 participants from public administration and civil society. The trainings enhanced professional capacities of target groups to integrate gender perspective in procedures of drafting the laws, strategies and of designing the IPA projects, with an ultimate aim of closing the gender gap.

Our total budget, since establishment, amounts to ‎2.627.466 EUR and it is primarily comprised from funds provided by more than 20 international organizations and foreign embassies. The share of public funds, provided by the Government of Montenegro is 8 per cent, and it amounts to 210.008,30 EUR. In the same period, we have paid a total of 436.652,22 EUR of taxes and contributions to the state, that is more than a double of the amount we received from public funds.

We cooperate with more than 40 organizations within the regional networks and with more than 100 organizations in Montenegro. We are especially proud of our membership within the Think for Europe Network (TEN), which gathers our likeminded partners from the Western Balkans and is committed to the approximation to the EU standards in key governance areas, as well as of our membership in the Balkan Security Platform.

Our organization currently has 9 employees, but a total of 50 people has contributed to our work during previous fifteen years. We remain grateful for their share in our organizational growth.

The IA Team

The Government’s intention to replace the entire managerial staff due to the terminological changes in names and minor adjustments to the scope of work of independent administrative bodies has no basis in the legal framework and is contrary to all the standards of good governance.

Cosmetic changes of the Regulation on the Organisation and Method of Operation of State Administration should not be the basis for the termination of the mandate of the heads of the Forest Administration, the Human Resources Administration, and the Public Works Administration, which has been precisely the Government’s intention.

The protection of administration directors and the high-level managerial staff from political influences is one of the basic principles of good governance, which is especially monitored in the process of EU accession. Therefore, as we have recently suggested, the fluctuation of seniors and heads at the level of 55% of their total number during the first six months of the previous Government was particularly noted by the European Commission as an indicator of inappropriate politicisation. The current Government has commenced its mandate by replicating the old patterns, using the professional positions that we all pay for as a share in the distribution of political spoils.

Of major concern is the fact that at a meeting yesterday, the Prime Minister confirmed that there are obstructions in certain administrations, which shall not be tolerated, while also clarifying that he wouldn’t talk about “names and surnames”. He has also called for the Law on Government to stipulate that the director of the administration who is not doing his/her job can be dismissed at any moment.

We remind the Prime Minister that the Law on Civil Servants and State Employees, which encompasses administrations’ directors and high-level managerial staff, prescribes the refusal to execute an order or a work task, the abuse of position or the excess of authority in the service, any omission or action that prevents a citizen or legal entity from exercising the rights that belong to them by law, unjustified absence from work for three consecutive working days, etc. as serious violations of official duty. Sectoral ministers have the right to initiate disciplinary proceedings against those heads suspected to have committed these and other prescribed violations of official duty. Additionally, heads and high-level managerial staff, whose work should be evaluated twice a year, lose their jobs if they receive the “does not satisfy” rating two times in a row.

These mechanisms in the legal framework are put in place precisely to protect the heads, who—according to the law—are civil servants and not politically appointed personalities, from arbitrary dismissals and vague speculations about alleged obstructions. The implementation of these mechanisms has been followed in the framework of regular monitoring reports on the state of the principles of public administration in the candidate countries, and the appointment of heads based on merit is an especially important benchmark under Chapter 23.

Determining individual professional responsibility through regular performance evaluation is necessary, thus, precisely through specific names and surnames. In the conditions where the performance evaluation is being replaced by the ignorance of the legal framework and the relativisation of the principles of good governance, we can talk about new-old practices of politicisation and the use or reorganisation to replace the unsuitable staff. We have described these practices in the publication ”Montenegrin Administration: The Organigram of Chaos”, when we pointed out that instead of serving as a mechanism for strategic adaptation of the administration to new tasks and roles of the organs, frequent reorganisations represent, inter alia, a potential tool for the politicisation of the administration and the degradation of officials and civil servants.

Milena Muk

Institute Alternative

Today, 17 NGOs sent the Initiative to the President of the Parliament of Montenegro, Danijela Đurović, to put on the agenda as soon as possible the Proposal of the Government of Montenegro from 6 June 2022 for ratification of Protocol 16 to the European Convention for Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

Ratification of the Protocol will enable the highest national courts in Montenegro to seek advisory opinions from the European Court of Human Rights “on matters of principle concerning the interpretation or application of the rights and freedoms defined in the Convention or its Protocols” in  pending cases. This means that Montenegro would have the opportunity to eliminate potential human rights violations in a timely manner in its legal system and, hence, reduce the number of petitions before the European Court of Human Rights. This is necessary given that Montenegro in 2019 and 2020 was the first in terms of population of the total number of petitions submitted to this court.

The signatories of the Initiative are:

1. Human rights action (HRA), Tea Gorjanc Prelević, Executive Director;
2. ANIMA – Center for Women’s and Peace Education, Ervina Dabižinović, coordinator;
3. Center for Democracy and Human Rights (CEDEM), Milena Bešić, Director;
4. Center for Democratic Transition (CDT), Milica Kovačević, Programe Director;
5. Center for Civil Liberties (CEGAS), Marija Popović Kalezić, Executive Director;
6. Centre for Civic Education (CCE), Daliborka Uljarević, Executive Director;
7. Center for Investigative Journalism in Montenegro (CIN – CG), Milka Tadić Mijović, President;
8. Monitoring and Research Center (CeMI), Zlatko Vujović, President of the Board of Directors;
9. Centre for the Development of Non-Governmental Organizations (CRNVO), Zorana Marković, Executive Director;
10. Center for Women’s Rights, Maja Raičević, Executive Director;
11. Institut Alternative, Stevo Muk, predsjednik Upravnog odbora;
12. Juventas, Ivana Vojvodić, izvršna direktorica;
13. Queer Montenegro, Danijel Kalezić, President of the Board of Directors;
14. LGBT Forum Progress, John M. Barac, Executive Director;
15. Network for Affirmation of the NGO Sector (MANS), Vanja Ćalović Marković, Executive Director;
16. Politikon Network, Nikola Mumin, Executive Director;
17. NGO Prima, Aida Perović, Executive Director.