The Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (ASK) should be given full investigative powers and direct access to certain databases in order to effectively detect illegal sources of funding for political parties or campaigns.
This is one of the recommendations of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) in the preliminary opinion on the Law on the Financing of Political Entities and Election Campaigns, which "Vijesti" has access to.
"In general, the powers and responsibilities of the Agency are broad, but it lacks full investigative powers and direct access to certain databases. "Without sufficient investigative powers, including on-site inspection, it can be a challenge for any supervisory authority to effectively detect illegal sources of funding for political parties or campaigns," ODIHR said.
It warns that the audit process can be ineffective if the supervisory authority carries it out only on the basis of the information submitted to it, and is not able to examine whether it is real or accurate and whether it represents a real and complete picture of the actor's income and expenses, with the involvement internal and external expertise when necessary.
"Strengthening the Agency's capabilities in these areas would improve its ability to detect and resolve illegal sources of financing, ensuring greater transparency and accountability in political financial operations. This would ultimately support the integrity of election processes and increase public trust in democratic institutions,'' the ODIHR Opinion reads.
ODIHR reminds that the State Audit Institution (DRI) provides opinions and recommendations for the elimination of irregularities in accordance with the Law on the Financing of Political Parties and its operational regulations.
"However, the Law does not contain enough details about audit criteria, processes and deadlines. Unless they are specifically regulated, these aspects should be included in the applicable law or at least referred to in parallel. It remains unclear whether all parties are subject to audit or only those that receive funds from public sources,'' states ODIHR.
They point out that, in general, parties can be exempted from audit obligations by law if they do not receive funds from public sources and do not engage in political activity.
"However, since according to the Law, political parties that do not have seats in the parliament do not have the right to finance regular operations from public sources, this could mean that they are also exempt from audit obligations. In this sense, a fairer distribution of state funding could be considered in order to ensure adequate support for non-parliamentary parties, together with their audit obligations,'' ODIHR recommends.
One of ODIHR's recommendations is to consider the possibility of allowing certain foreign donations to parties.
"We should consider the possibility that international political organizations and associations can donate to their national branches to support party building and education, with the condition that these donations are not used to finance campaigns and favor certain political actors at the expense of others," the ODIHR Opinion reads. -a.
Recalling that the law they analyzed prohibits the receipt of contributions from "other countries", legal and natural persons who do not have the right to vote in Montenegro, and that this provision is in accordance with the Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe Rec (2003)4, ODIHR states that many countries allow certain exceptions to such a complete ban on foreign donations, and adds that it is recommended that the issue be "carefully regulated in order to avoid violating the right to freedom of association of parties active at the international level".
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