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 regulation in October 2023, this inspection body was placed under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Spatial Planning, Urbanism, and State Property. Until then, since 2010, it operated under the Ministry of Finance in accordance with the Law on State Property. Changes in the organisation of the government did not take into account the Law on State Property, which stipulates that the Ministry of Finance is responsible for its enforcement. As a result, the inspection body remains caught between the law and the regulation, between two ministries, and inspectors are left without the authority to carry out their duties.
From October 2023 to June 2024, the government did not take measures to resolve the inconsistency between the provisions of the law and the regulation. Only in June did the government propose amendments to the Law on State Property to change the responsible ministry, aligning the law with the regulation. However, this proposal was not adopted by Parliament, as the majority of MPs opposed the government’s and ruling coalition’s amendment proposal.
As of October 2024, the State Property Inspection has no inspectors; two inspectors were reassigned, and the third’s mandate expired.
In January 2023, there were five state property inspectors within the Directorate for State Property Inspection. Inspections in 2023 were carried out by four inspectors, as one inspector continued working in the Municipality of Bar in February 2023. Since January 2024, the State Property Inspection has had no chief inspector, and inspections have been carried out by three inspectors.
The Directorate for State Property Inspection oversees the enforcement of the Law on State Property, the Regulation on the Sale and Lease of State Property, and the Regulation on the Record and Inventory of Movable and Immovable Property in State Ownership. The State Property Inspection monitors the management of state assets and other property belonging to Montenegro or local governments in ministries, other administrative bodies, government agencies, local government bodies, the Capital, the Royal Capital, and public institutions. The State Property Inspection also oversees the procedures, agreements, and conditions under which state-owned immovable property is leased or used.
In 2023, the State Property Inspection conducted 36 inspections. None of these inspections recorded any cases of state property being usurped. Apart from one inspection, in which inspectors visited four outpatient clinics at the Health Centre in Kotor, no inspections recorded the state of state-owned assets.
A Television Vijesti segment and commentary by our Dragana Jaćimović on this topic.
We monitor the work of inspections within the project “ Inspect to Protect: Turning Inspectorates Into Anti-Corruption Allies”, supported by the Embassy of the United States in Montenegro, the State Department’s Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL). The content is the sole responsibility of Institute Alternative and does not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Government.
