The Anti-corruption Committee is the least active parliamentary working body in Montenegro, a country with a concerning degree of corruption in many areas. Over the period of more than nine months following its establishment on 17 December 2020, the Committee held three meetings and discussed 12 points of the respective agendas. The Committee’s Work Plan for 2021 was adopted as late as in the fifth month of the year it referred to.
During the observed period, the Committee25 did not make use of the control mechanisms available to it to substantially improve the fight against corruption and organised crime. Although the 2021 amendments to the Law on the State Prosecution Service expanded the list of those to be ’’held to account’’ at the request of the Committee, none of the Committee members initiated a single control or consultative hearing.
Review of the petitions that citizens may submit to the Parliament and the Committee was only partially institutionalised on the basis of our earlier recommendations. Although the Parliament Service is required to deliver the response to the petitioner within 15 days, the deadlines for the petitions that fall within the remit of the working bodies themselves were not defined, so the petitions submitted to the Anti-corruption Committee during 2021 remained on hold for five months.
Recommendations for improving the work of the Committee are presented in the Report; they refer in particular to the stepping up of its oversight and legislative roles and enhancing the transparency of its work.
