According to the recently adopted Law on the Prevention of Corruption, even presidents of municipal assemblies, vice-presidents and councilors could not hold parliamentary positions at the same time, as this is an obvious conflict of interest.
This is claimed by the lawyer with whom "Vijesti" spoke, stating that they perform duties in the local self-government body - the municipal assembly, and that therefore the new law does not allow them to be parliamentarians.
As "Vijesti" announced yesterday, after the new anti-corruption act entered into force in June, municipal presidents can no longer be MPs because it has now been specified what local government bodies are (secretariats, agencies, municipal administrations... ), and what about local self-government bodies (municipal president and municipal assembly).
In the recently valid Law on Prevention of Corruption, which was passed in 2017 (during the rule of the Democratic Party of Socialists) and on the basis of which municipal presidents could also be members of parliament, there was no mention of local self-government bodies. It was written that "a public official who performs duties in the state administration and local administration bodies cannot perform the function of deputy and councilor".
In the newly adopted regulation, the Law on Prevention of Corruption (the word "prevention" no longer has the letter "j"), local self-government is also mentioned. It was stated that "an official who performs tasks in the state administration and local administration and local self-government bodies cannot perform the function of a deputy".
This should mean that, according to the recently valid law, the functions of the president of the municipality and the deputy were not incompatible, because the head of the municipality was not an organ of local administration, but of local self-government - a category introduced in the new regulation.
The Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (ASK) recently confirmed this, when it told members of the state parliament and the leaders of Bar and Nikšić Dušan Raičević i Marko Kovačević ordered them to "relinquish" one of the positions, because now that the distinction between local administration and local self-government has been made, they are incompatible.
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However, it is unclear what will be the "fate" of the deputies who hold the positions of municipal presidents and councilors, of whom there are more in the Montenegrin parliament, given that they work in the municipal assembly - which, like the municipal president, is a local self-government body . KAS did not answer "Vijesti" whether they believe that presidents of municipal assemblies, vice-presidents and councilors cannot be MPs.
The lawyer with whom "Vijesti" spoke says that the provisions of the new law should definitely apply to the presidents of the SO, vice presidents and councilors.
Stating that "legal norms cannot be interpreted in isolation from social relations", she points to another aspect of the story - that, according to her, municipal officials and councilors in the state parliament will vote in the interest of their municipality when certain documents come up on the agenda ( spatial plans, etc.).
"Norms must not be interpreted linguistically and formally, but contextually and in accordance with social circumstances and social relations. The norm on the conflict of interest should be interpreted more broadly and remove any doubt that a certain individual can, by deciding on two positions, cast doubt on the objectivity of that decision," said the interlocutor, saying that each individual must objectively and reasonably observe his function and withdraw himself from the one that could lead to suspicion of a conflict of interest.
In addition to the two municipal presidents (Raičević and Kovačević), the president of the SO Bar also performs the parliamentary function Branislav Nenezić (Social Democrats).
In the state parliament, a significant number of deputies also perform committee functions. Members of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) Ivan Vukovic, Nermin Abdić, Zoja Bojanić Lalović, Nikola Rakočević, Mihailo Andjusic i Aleksandra Despotović are councilors in the Assembly of the Capital City, and they are also deputies of the Europe Now Movement (PES) Vasilije Carapić, Boris Pejović i Branka Markovic, Democrat MP Zdenka Popović, an independent MP Jevrosima Pejović...
In September of last year, during the validity of the previous law, the ASK assessed that Raičević and the then deputies and presidents of the municipalities of Kolašin and Tuzi Vladimir Martinovic i Nick Djelosaj are not in conflict of interest. The institution he heads Jelena Perović, she stated at the time that these are not incompatible functions, because the jobs performed by the mayor do not belong to the jobs performed in the state administration (ministries and state administration bodies), "nor local administration bodies (consisting of secretariats, administrations and directorates), according to the Law on Local Self-Government, they belong to the local self-government body".
"... Because according to Article 2 of the Law on Local Self-Government, 'local self-government is realized in the municipality as a unit of local self-government, while Articles 35 and 55 of the same law stipulate that the municipal bodies are the assembly and the president of the municipality, as the executive body of the municipality'". they said at the time from ASK.
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