Sessions of the Council of the Agency for Prevention of Corruption should be open to public, a decision that the member related to public officials voted for should be invalid, and the Council opened to the participation of interested parties.
Institute Alternative has participated today at the session of the Council of the Agency for Prevention of Corruption wherein we have presented our comments on the proposal of the Rules of Procedure of this authority. In the comments we have focused on the provisions concerning the transparency of the Council. In this regard, we believe that the meetings of the Council should be, as a rule, open to public, and only exceptionally closed, in cases prescribed by the Rules of Procedure and voted by a majority of members of the Council.
Rules of procedure should also prescribe obligatory cooperation of the Council with other state authorities. Additionally, we pointed to the need to prescribe the possibility for interested parties to request, on their own initiative, in writing, to attend the session of the Council or to take part in the session, and not only upon the invitation of the Council, as currently prescribed by the Rules of Procedure. The Council should decide on the request for the presence of an interested party by a majority of the total number of members of the Council.
Draft of the Rules of Procedure prescribes that a member of the Council shall be exempted from voting, if he/her is related to the public official or other person to be decided upon. We believe that the Rules of Procedure should stipulate that the Council’s decision should be declared invalid if it is subsequently proven that the member related to the public official or other person to be decided upon voted for it.
Finally, the administrative work for the Council cannot be decentralized, and the Rules of Procedure should specify that these operations shall be performed by the Secretary who shall be elected from among the employees of the Agency.
Stevo MUK
President of the Managing board
Institute alternative’s comments on the proposal of the Rules of Procedure of the Council for the Council of the Agency for Prevention of Corruption
(only in Montenegrin)
