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Inter-parliamentary conference on the Berlin Process held in Petrovac

In collaboration with our partners, the Institute for Democracy ‘Societas Civilis’ from Skopje, we organised an inter-parliamentary conference titled “The Advantages of the Berlin Process: Special Focus on the Common Regional Market.”

The conference gathered MPs from all regional parliaments, who exchanged opinions and experiences on the current state and future challenges of the Berlin Process with civil society representatives.

During the first panel, titled “The Berlin Process and Its Current State in the Western Balkans,” MPs discussed the current state and future steps for improvement.

The topic of the second panel discussion was “The Common Regional Market – What Worked Before and Challenges for Action Plan 2.0? The Position of Western Balkan Parliaments.” Panelists emphasised the importance of debating economic issues relevant to citizens and the business community in the region.

The event is part of the project “Parliamentary Diplomacy: Regional Cooperation through Enhanced Parliamentary Dialogue,” supported by the Federal Government of Germany, which aims to showcase the advantages of the Berlin Process by strengthening parliamentary diplomacy and utilising oversight mechanisms by Western Balkan parliaments.

In addition to Institute Alternative, our project partners in the region include the Institute for Democracy ‘Societas Civilis’ (IDSCS) from Skopje, the Centre for Research, Transparency and Accountability (CRTA) from Belgrade, the Kosova Democratic Institute (KDI) from Pristina, the Network of Progressive Initiatives (NPI) from Sarajevo, and the Institute for Political Studies (ISP) from Tirana.

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IA meeting with the President of Montenegro

The professionalisation of the management structure and good corporate governance in public enterprises form the foundation for creating an efficient and economically prosperous society. This was one of the key messages from the meeting with the President of Montenegro, Jakov Milatović.

The meeting was held on June 19, and Institute Alternative was represented by Stevo Muk, Marko Sošić, and Dragana Jaćimović.

During the meeting, it was conveyed that decision-makers must ensure that state-owned enterprises exemplify responsibility, transparency, and ethics, which has not been the case in the past.

The meeting was prompted by the Call for Action, which IA addressed to all decision-makers in March this year. The participants of the meeting agreed that employment in the public sector is rife with inappropriate influences, and that knowledge, professional references, and work results must be the criteria by which the best will assume responsibility and be the bearers of the social and economic progress of our country.

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Fourth year in a row: Ministry of the Interior works without an HR Plan

We still do not have precise data on the number of employees in the Ministry of the Interior and the Police Administration, nor do we have information on planned recruitments or projections regarding the number of those who will retire.

Last Friday, the Government approved the Partial Human Resource Plan for State Administration Bodies and Services of the Government of Montenegro for 2024, but it does not include the human resource plan for the Ministry of the Interior.

The Ministry of the Interior last prepared a Human Resource Plan in 2019. The HR Plan serves as the basis for conducting competitions and announcements for filling job positions.

This is the fourth year that the Ministry of the Interior has failed to fulfil the legal obligation to prepare this document, which is drafted simultaneously with the Budget Law and adopted 30 days after the budget is approved.

As early as December of last year, we reminded the Ministry of the Interior of this obligation, and in January, we pointed out that without an HR Plan, there is no precise data on personnel.

The Partial Human Resource Plan adopted by the Government for this year is available at this link.

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IA organised two gender-budgeting trainings

Institute Alternative (IA) organised two two-day trainings under the name “Programme budgeting through gender glasses”, as a continuation of efforts to introduce the concept of gender-responsive budgeting to civil servants.

The trainings, which took place from May 27 to 30 at the Palas Hotel in Petrovac, aimed to familiarise about 30 officials with the basic concepts of gender budgeting and train them to recognise the gender component in budget programmes and their elements.

Using practical examples, participants were introduced to this concept of public finance management, and why gender-responsive budgeting is a public policy topic in general.

During the training, participants had the opportunity to define gender-responsive goals, determine gender components of budget programmes, and design activities that support gender equality. In addition, they learned about the key tools for budget utilisation and devised indicators with the help of which the success of the implemented activities can be measured.

The two-day training was attended by about 30 officials from several state institutions: Ministry of Economic Development, Ministry of European Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Culture and Media, Ministry of Human and Minority Rights, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property, the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, as well as the Ministry of Transport and Maritime Affairs, the Ministry of Tourism, Ecology, Sustainable Development and Development of the North, the Judicial and Prosecutorial Council, the Railway Administration, the Administration for Forest and Hunting Management, the Red Cross of Montenegro, of the Health Insurance Fund, the Employment Agency of Montenegro, the Administration for the Execution of Criminal Sanctions, Statistical Office of Montenegro (MONSTAT) and the Pension and Disability Insurance Fund.

The training was organised by Institute Alternative within the project “Programme budgeting through gender glasses”, with the support of the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights.

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Meeting with Media Friends Network

On Tuesday, June 4th, we held a meeting with journalists who are part of our informal network of media friends. We established this network back in 2018 and have since expanded it in order to jointly work on strengthening our capacity to research and deal with public finances, including public procurement.

The specific goal of this project was to improve the quality of media reporting on public procurement, which is why we engaged media friends to design and produce video stories, investigative articles on public procurement in various fields, and prepare a special TV programmes on public procurement. The meeting also provided an opportunity to discuss our past cooperation and its continuation.

The key reason for the meeting was to present the new section of the mojnovac.me portal related to public procurement. This portal serves as a tool that can be of great benefit to journalists in researching and dealing with public procurement, as it represents an easily searchable database of public procurements for the past three years. This database allows us to see who receives money through public procurements, with whom the state most frequently concludes contracts, and which companies have received money for goods, services, and works over the past three years.

During the meeting, journalists emphasised that this portal will be of great importance for their further work in investigating public procurement.

The meeting was organised as part of the project “Public Procurement Under Spotlight – Making Watchdogs Work!”, which we are implementing with the support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Serbia and Montenegro through the MATRA support program. The project aims to empower and motivate budget guardians to fight against corruption and inappropriate influences in public procurement.

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Third meeting of the Public Procurement Watchdogs

On Monday, June 3, Institute alternative organised the third meeting of the Public Procurement Watchdogs Network, where participants were presented with a new section of the Moj novac portal dedicated to public procurement.

The meeting was organised within the project “Public procurement under spotlight – Making Watchdogs Work!”, which IA conducts with the support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Serbia and Montenegro within the MATRA Rule of Law program.

The meeting was attended by 20 representatives from various institutions: the Ministry of Finance, the Commission for the Protection of Rights in Public Procurement Procedures, the State Audit Institution, the Administration for Inspection Affairs, the Agency for Prevention of Corruption, the Higher State Prosecutor’s Office, and the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare.

Dragana Jaćimović, a public policy researcher at the Institute Alternative, presented the new section of the Moj novac portal, which represents an easily searchable public procurement database, for the period of the past three years. This database enables us to see who receives money through public procurement, with whom the state most frequently concludes contracts, and which enterprises have received money for goods, services, and works over the past three years.

We demonstrated all the functionalities of the portal to the meeting participants, including the ability to search for contracting authorities and bidders by name or tax identification number (TIN), review all contracts, and access statistical data on concluded contracts in relation to the procurement subject and type of procedure. Additionally, we integrated the portal with the Electronic public procurement system (CEJN) portal, allowing users to review the entire procurement process from tender announcement to contract conclusion with a single click via CEJN.

Following the presentation, members of the Public Procurement Guardians Network had several questions regarding the functionality and method of searching for information on the mojnovac.me portal. Participants emphasised the contribution of such a portal to the work of institutions, noting that it offers functionalities not provided by the public procurement portal through which procedures are conducted.

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.