The work of Montenegrin prosecutors will be evaluated once every four years, in 40 percent of cases the absence of results will be tolerated, the mandate of the Prosecutorial Council will be increased from four to five years, and the Assembly will be deprived of proposing two members of that body, so one will be returned to the prosecutors, and one will be elect the Bar Association.
The Action for Social Justice (ASP) states that these are solutions from the amendments to the Law on the State Prosecutor's Office, assessing that they "cause skepticism that the prosecution service, which is perceived by the majority in the country as questionably objective, prone to influence and close to the former ruling party of the Democratic Party of Socialists, will not only to control the work of the Prosecutor's Council again, but that we should not expect significant developments in prosecutorial investigations".
"According to the current legal solution, the Prosecutor's Council has a president, who is the Supreme State Prosecutor, and ten members. Of these, four members are prosecutors, four are distinguished lawyers, one is a representative of the Ministry of Justice, and one is from non-governmental organizations, and precisely this composition of the Prosecutor's Council initiated certain changes in the prosecution, which resulted in certain results, so some of the so-called 'big fish' still ended up behind bars," the announcement states.
They point out that the new resolution deprives the Parliament of its right to elect four distinguished lawyers, but it will elect only two, and of those two members of the Prosecutor's Council, one will be elected by the prosecutors in the future, so they will have five members, and one will be proposed by the Chamber of Advocates, while the Ministry justice and non-governmental organizations reserve the right to have their own representative. "There is no explanation why it is proposed that the Bar Association of Montenegro have its own representative in the Prosecutor's Council," points out ASP.
At the same time, the amendments to the law on the Special State Prosecutor's Office (SST) define the term "high public official", according to which he will conduct investigations in relation to corruption, "but it seems that the definition has not been fully developed and it is not clear why certain persons do not fall under that term."
"Among high-ranking public officials are three key state functions and their general secretaries, deputies, a member of the government, state secretary and general director in the ministry, directors of the National Security Agency, the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, the Agency for the Protection of Competition, judges, prosecutors, the ombudsman, protector of property and legal interests... These are the head of the administrative body and his assistant for the execution of criminal sanctions, protection of secret data, taxes, customs, games of chance, capital projects, real estate, state property, environmental protection and inspection work," he adds. ASP.
However, as they state, it remains unclear whether the tasks for capital projects include only the Administration for Capital Projects, or also the head of the Traffic Administration, which annually carries out procedures amounting to several tens of millions of euros, and whether the tasks for environmental protection also include the Administration for forests and the Water Administration. It is also unclear, they say, why the head of the Personnel Administration, which carries out recruitment in the public administration, is not in this group.
"The definition also recognizes as a high public functionary the mayor of the Capital City and the Capital City, the president of the municipality, the president of the municipal assembly, but not the chief administrator of the municipality, who, along with the mayor, is one of the key figures at the local level," writes ASP.
The definition recognizes the governor and member of the Council of the Central Bank as a high-ranking public official, but the management team of the Investment Development Fund, which annually decides on granting loans worth more than 100 million euros and whose council is chosen by the government, remains outside the definition.
An elected or appointed person in the management bodies of majority-owned companies is also recognized as a public official. According to the Law on Business Companies, ASP reminds, these are only partnerships, limited partnerships, joint stock companies and doo (limited liability companies).
They also note that the Special State Prosecutor's Office will no longer be responsible for electoral corruption. "Nor for the criminal offenses of abuse of position in economic operations and abuse of authority in the economy, if the benefit obtained is over 40, although these two criminal offenses are extremely significant and it would be justified to remain under the jurisdiction of the Special Prosecutor's Office, with the raising of the monetary threshold for prosecution," notes ASP.
"Action for Social Justice has already indicated that in the amendments to the Law on the Judicial Council and Judges, certain solutions are foreseen, which cannot be interpreted as a step forward, but on the contrary, so it can be judged that the IBAR laws, although citizens eagerly await their adoption and that should not be gambled away, however, prosecutors and judges are most happy, and citizens can already forget that the real justice, which most have been waiting for for years, will be delivered to them," the announcement concludes.
Action for social justice
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