News
NGO initiative to the President of Montenegro regarding Ombudsman
Institute Alternative is one of the 21 signatories of the initiative to the President of Montenegro, Mr Milo Đukanović, to propose to the Parliament of Montenegro professor Nebojša Vučinić Ph.D. as new Protector of Human Rights and Freedoms of Montenegro (Ombudsman). Montenegro does not have an Ombudsman at present, since the former one, Mr. Šućko…
A success story: Montenegrin CSOs brought closer the budget and the citizens
With the support of Institute Alternative, nine projects that brought budgetary aspect of national and local public policies closer to citizens were successfully implemented in the past six months. From January to July 2019, nine projects aiming to ensure effective oversight of public spending were implemented in six municipalities. These projects were implemented within our…
New IA Project: Fostering Grassroot Anti-Corruption Work in Health and Education in the Western Balkans
Institute alternative (IA) with partners from the region started implementation of the new project ”Fostering Grassroots Anti-Corruption Work in Health and Education in the Western Balkans” in July of 2019. Aim of the project is to foster civil society anti-corruption work in the Western Balkans by supporting collaboration of anti-corruption organisations and grassroots groups which…
EU accession negotiations, Public administration reform
Results of the Contest You4EU – Citizen participation 2.0
Within the You4EU project , we have selected the winner and another five best digital ideas for tools aimed at encouraging citizens’ activism. The best digital solution will receive a prize amounting 2.000€, while all six finalists, one of which is from Montenegro, will get a chance to present their ideas at the debate in…
13,300 lawsuits against the state
Last year, state had to pay 16 million euros for lawsuits – nine million for the debt principal, and the rest for court expenses and enforcement costs. Problem of double payment is easily illustrated by an example from the Ministry of Interior and employee who sued the state for principal debt of 1.45 euros, and…
EU accession negotiations, Other, Public administration reform
Third selection of Vesna Medenica grossly violates the Constitution
By electing Ms. Vesna Medenica for the third time as President of the Supreme Court of Montenegro, the Judicial Council grossly violated the Constitution, which prohibits in Article 124 (5) the same person from being elected more than twice for the post (“The same person may be elected the president of the Supreme Court no…
Accountable public finances, Public administration reform
A story of the public procurement data which are no longer public
Author: Marija Mirjačić Public Procurement Report for 2018 on 46 pages (including attachments) which the Government adopted, confirms how right we were to doubt that the public procurement system will develop better and faster under the Ministry of Finance, stated Ana Đurnić from Institute Alternative for Daily Vijesti. Đurnić claims that this year’s Report lacks…
Petition remains without effect when it reveals how officials obtain flats
The Ministry of Public Administration rejected the petition asking for a change of policy on the publication of the report on the work of the Commissions in charge of distributing budgetary funds E-petitions are only acceptable to the Government if that service is not used to uncover what is at the core of the monopoly…
Accountable public finances, Public administration reform
Government of Montenegro puts private interests ahead of the interest of public to know
Petition “Our money, their flats and secret funds” stopped in its tracks The Government of Montenegro Ministry of Public Administration (MPA) did not approve the launch of the e-petition of ten NGOs asking the Government to publish, at last, the information concerning the expenditure of budgetary reserve funds and the flats allocated to officials. In…
365 Days to Election
The split views held by the establishment, led by the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), and the opposition on the environment for holding elections in Montenegro have caused a string of grave political crises which have had a devastating impact on the functioning of democracy, the work of the Parliament, the parliamentary oversight of the…
State owned enterprises spend money on donations, sponsorships and one-off social assistance: Millions are leaking without any rule and order
By spending the money which they mostly raise thanks to their monopolistic position in the market, state-owned enterprises support sports associations and federations, cultural and musical events, and also pay one-off social assistance to legal entities and individuals. State-owned enterprises, including those which have been incurring losses for years, spend millions of euros a year…
The updated portal ”My Money” presented
At the workshop organised for the representatives of NGOs and media, we presented an updated and upgraded portal ‘’My Money’’, a visualisation of state-level budget data, which provides citizens a simple insight in the way that administration collects and spends their money. The portal was launched in 2017, as the first civil society visualisation of…