The Parliament has an important role in controlling government’s spending and procurement, and should have the capacity to verify key information about the funds allocated to consumer units, but also regarding effective and efficient of these resources.
The role of the Parliament of Montenegro in the control of the public procurement system remains limited. This practice is largely conditioned by the existing normative solutions that do not recognize the importance of parliamentary oversight of the reports of the key institutions that have the responsibility of management and control of public procurement procedures (except the report of the State Commission for Supervision of Public Procurement). However, even on the basis of the existing competencies, the parliament could become a more active participant in this segment of controlling the executive.
Our project “Strengthening Parliamentary Oversight of Public Procurement System”, which is supported by the Democracy Commission Small Grants U.S. Embassy in Montenegro, aims to strengthen the capacity of the Parliament to actively monitor and control the public procurement system. Also, one of the objectives of the project includes creating a compilation of all relevant information on public procurement through the creation of a parliamentary guide that will facilitate the monitoring and control of these areas by the Committee for Economy, Finance and Budget, and the Committee on anti-corruption, as well as other committees overseeing Ministries and budgetary units.
Striving to strengthening the capacity of Parliament, we will organize a seminar for the Parliamentary Staff. Through an intensive two-day training, participants will be able to get acquainted with the institutional and legal framework for public procurement, as well as the progress of negotiations in Chapter 5 relating to this area. The speakers will be representatives of the Directorate of Public Procurement, State Commission for Supervision of Public Procurement, Ministry of Finance, the Inspection Directorate and the State Audit Institution.
Jovana Marović
Research Coordinator
