News
About Public Administration Employment for CIN-CG
Official data is quite conservative, and its reliability is questionable, but it shows a steady trend of increasing public sector employment. It is important to emphasise that there is no unified record of the number of employees in state and local government owned enterprises. The downside of all this is flawed hiring procedures and a…
Accountable public finances, Public administration reform
IA Proposals for SAI’s Annual Audit Plan for 2025
The State Audit Institution (SAI) has continued its positive practice for the second consecutive year, inviting civil society, the academic community, and professional associations to submit proposals for the annual audit plan for the coming year. We would like to remind that last year, the SAI accepted one of the three proposals we submitted, and…
The Government Forgot About the State Property Inspection
The State Property Inspection has not conducted a single inspection in the past year, and in the meantime, the inspection body has been left without inspectors, as they have been reassigned to other positions or their mandates have expired. The State Property Inspection has not been operational since October 2023. Following amendments to a government…
Eight Months from Initiative to Hearing: The Committee Finally Reviewed the SAI Report on CEDIS
Eight months after submitting the initiative, the Committee for Economy, Finance, and Budget finally conducted a control hearing of the head of the Montenegrin Electric Distribution System (CEDIS), the Montenegrin Electric Power Company (EPCG), the Minister of Energy, and members of the Senate of the State Audit Institution (SAI) on the financial state and operations…
IA’s Initiative For a Joint Hearing on Hold For Five Months
For nearly five months, we have been waiting for the parliamentary committees on economy and health to act on our initiative for holding a joint hearing on the topic of public procurement in healthcare. Despite the fact that the initiative, submitted by Institute Alternative on May 10th this year, was initially accepted by both parliamentary…
Parliamentary Dimension of the Berlin Process at the Bundestag
The German Bundestag hosted the event “Parliamentary Dimension of the Berlin Process,” held on October 9 in Berlin. The event, supported by the German Federal Foreign Office, was organised by the Institute for Democracy “Societas Civilis” from Skopje, in cooperation with Institute Alternative and other partner organisations from the region. The event brought together MPs…
A Quarter of State-Owned Enterprises Hide Directors’ Contracts
Complex network of salaries, bonuses, and severance payments in other sectors A quarter of state-owned enterprises did not respond to our request for access to the contracts of their executive directors, including some of the largest and most important public companies. The lack of transparency is further compounded by the failure to provide contract annexes.…
Meeting of NGO representatives with the Supreme State Prosecutor
A meeting between the Supreme State Prosecutor’s Office and representatives of non-governmental organisations was held today, with Dragana Jaćimović, a representative of Institute Alternative, participating. The meeting was organised with the aim of establishing better, higher-quality, and more cooperative partnerships between the State Prosecutor’s Office and civil society. Supreme State Prosecutor Milorad Marković informed the…
Half of Parliamentary Groups Do Not Submit Requests for Research Papers
Half of parliamentary groups did not approach the Research Centre of the Parliament of Montenegro with requests for research papers, and the Parliamentary Budget Office received no requests from MPs During the current session of Parliament, half of the parliamentary groups have not approached the Research Centre of the Assembly with requests for research papers,…
Parliamentary program, Public administration reform, Public policy school
Public Policy School – Parliamentary Edition
Institute Alternative held another Public Policy School from September 10th to 12th at the Avala Hotel in Budva, this time for representatives of the expert staff of the Parliament of Montenegro. The goal of our School, which we have organised in different versions since 2012, is to contribute to the quality development of public policies…
Corruption in Public Procurement – Criminal (Non)Liability
Corruption in public procurement represents one of the highest risk areas for damage to the state budget and can occur at any stage of the process. In the analysis “Public Procurement in Montenegro – Transparency and Liability” in 2010, we wrote that “The Police Administration independently filed only three criminal charges over a period of…
10 questions for the Ministry of the Interior
In the repeated parliamentary debate on the proposal of amendments to the Law on Internal Affairs, representatives of the Government of Montenegro, specifically the Ministry of the Interior, have a new opportunity to provide answers and additional explanations to the following questions: Why did the Ministry of the Interior, during the preparation of this act,…