The executive power in Montenegro is the most open in the region, but it also fits into the negative regional trend, the monitoring of the Center for Democratic Transition (CDT) showed.
Research on the openness of the executive power in Montenegro was conducted from January to March, and based on the results, a set of recommendations and guidelines for improving the openness of institutions was made.
"According to this year's measurement, the executive power in Montenegro is the most open in the region, with a total of 55 percent meeting the openness criteria, which is more than the regional average of 43 percent," the monitoring says.
It is estimated, however, that Montenegro also fits into the negative regional trend, so the institutions of the executive power are generally stagnant when it comes to openness, and in some cases there are also steps backwards.
In order to determine the extent to which the citizens of the Western Balkans receive timely and understandable information from their institutions, CDT, together with partners from the Action SEE network of organizations, developed the Regional Index of Openness last year.
"Within that Index, for two years we have been measuring and analyzing the openness of 80 institutions of the executive power in Montenegro and the region through about 275 criteria per institution, and we have collected over 15 data on those institutions," says the monitoring, which was presented today.
It is stated that the CDT proposed to the Government of Montenegro to adopt a strategic document and that openness thus become the policy of the state, especially due to the fact that openness decreases significantly as we move towards administrative bodies at a lower hierarchical level.
"Then it was announced that openness will be treated separately by the Government's Communication Strategy for the period 2017-2020, the adoption of which was foreseen in the fourth quarter of 2017. However, the strategy, without explanation, was not adopted in 2017, nor was its adoption planned in the Work Program of the Government of Montenegro for 2018," says the CDT document.
It is emphasized that the non-governmental sector has not yet been involved in the preparation of this document.
It is estimated that the Government of Montenegro largely satisfies the indicators in the area of administrative transparency, as it publishes most of the necessary information on public officials and civil servants, including detailed information on the salaries of public officials employed by the Government.
"Transparency of the sessions of the Government of Montenegro is still an area in which additional improvements are possible and necessary," says CDT's monitoring.
It is stated that the Government publishes censored agendas of the sessions, from which it is not possible to see a large number of points that were discussed. "Thus, the public is deprived not only of information about the content of protected acts, but also of the very fact that they were discussed".
"The Government of Montenegro has not even improved budget transparency," says CDT's monitoring.
This non-governmental organization states that the ministries in Montenegro meet an average of 60 percent of the openness criteria.
"This result is the best in the region, which indicates the unsatisfactory level of openness of the ministries in the area and the fact that the ministries are not dedicated to reaching the highest standards of openness," the monitoring stated.
The best ranked is the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism, which fulfills 76 percent of the indicators of openness, while the weakest is the Ministry of Transport and Maritime Affairs with only 34 percent.
"Such large differences point to an uneven approach to openness policies, but also to the need for strategic planning and openness development at the level of all ministries."
On average, administrative bodies satisfy 36 percent of the indicators of openness.
"A large number of administrative bodies are not only not committed to the legal minimum of publishing information, let alone reaching the highest standards of openness. "Such a practice is unacceptable and must be changed urgently," says the monitoring.
The best ranked are the Tax Administration (72.5 percent), the Secretariat for Legislation (55) and the Institute of Statistics of Montenegro (51).
The lowest ranked are the Administration for Hydrocarbons (14 percent), the Institute for the Execution of Criminal Sanctions (15) and the Directorate for the Development of Small and Medium Enterprises (16).
"Given the worryingly bad result in this area, we believe that the administrative authorities urgently need to start regularly updating the website and publishing information about the work of the authorities, in accordance with the Law on Free Access to Information," said the CDT.
Bonus video:
