If during the visit to the ANB and inspection of the documentation, any illegal behavior or suspicion of abuse is established, the Committee for Security and Defense will assess the undertaking of further actions in accordance with the laws, organize control hearings, send requests for information and undertake other activities in accordance with the provisions of the Law on Parliamentary Supervision in the Field of Security and Defense and other regulations governing this field, he told "Vijesti" Miodrag Laković (PES), the president of the Parliamentary Committee for Security and Defense on the occasion of today's control visit of deputies to the Agency for National Security and Defense (ANB).
According to the work plan established by the Board for 2024, a visit to the ANB is scheduled for December 16 for "immediate insight into the functioning of the security system in certain areas, as well as continuous monitoring of the implementation of secret surveillance measures by authorities and institutions that are temporarily limit the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution".
The Law on Parliamentary Supervision in the Field of Security and Defense stipulates that parliamentary supervision is carried out regularly according to the annual plan. Among other things, it envisages a visit to authorities and institutions in the field of security and defense for the purpose of direct insight into the functioning of the security system in certain areas, as well as continuous monitoring of the implementation of secret surveillance measures by authorities and institutions that temporarily limit rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution.
"Thus, in an immediate way, the members of the Board are given the opportunity to have an insight into the activities of the ANB in the application of secret surveillance measures, as well as other activities, in accordance with the regulations, with special reference to the question of the legality of enforcement actions, which to a significant extent, I believe, it contributes to the democratization of society and respect for the rule of law and the order established by the Constitution", explains Laković.
Sergej Sekulovic, political analyst and former minister of the interior, points out that it is good that this type of control of the work of the security service will come.
"Effects by themselves cannot be great. This is due to legal solutions, the system of division of power, the protection of the interests of ongoing proceedings, but also the rights and freedoms of citizens. Special reports, control, consultative hearings, parliamentary investigations, also include this form of supervision and should be used as often as possible, and their use should generate trust in the work of the parliament, or more precisely parliamentarians. This committee in particular would have to be outside the influence of daily politics," Sekulović points out.
Prophet Nikola Zirojevic (SD), a member of the Security and Defense Committee, believes that a visit to ANB can have a contribution in the way that MPs will get to know, in practice, what ANB's capabilities are in terms of implementing MTN.
"What most MPs know in theory, during this visit, they will see live in practice, which I believe will be important to them when they continue to perform their work in the said Committee", explains Zirojević.
He believes that the deputies are not sufficiently competent to assess compliance with the law in the implementation of the MTN based on direct observation. Zirojević points out that the members of the Board are not sufficiently educated when we talk about the implementation of MTN and believes that some form of education on this topic, before the mentioned visit, would be of great importance to the majority of the members of the Board for a better understanding of the implementation of MTN in practice.
"I have the impression that the visit will look more like a tourist tour than a real control of the implementation of MTN in practice, for the reasons I stated in the answers to the previous two questions. I believe that the ANB will use everything mentioned in order for the visit to go 'smoothly' and to have as few problems as possible in this sense", stressed MP Zirojević.
As far as is known, MPs will be able to choose three files at their own discretion, review them and, as Laković points out, after the end of the visit, "the activity will be documented with information in the archives of the Security and Defense Committee, in accordance with the regulations."
If, the chairman of the Security Committee points out, during the visit to the ANB and inspection of the documentation, "any illegal behavior or suspicion of abuse is detected, the Security and Defense Committee will assess taking further actions".
For Sekulović, the essential question is how motivated the law enforcement agencies will be to pass on potential illegalities to the members of the Board.
"Board members cannot have operational data from the so-called 'living objects', but they can make comparisons. The main data that they must have constant supervision over is how many secret surveillance measures have not 'fruited' and whether the persons who were subject to the measures were notified and why they were not informed, Sekulović adds, noting that both this and the law which more closely regulates the parliamentary investigation should undergo changes, so that many things are specified and the lines of separation of competences between the branches of government are preserved.
How much do MPs know about the MTN issue
One of the essential issues of control over the implementation of secret surveillance measures is the competence of deputies in terms of knowledge of the security sphere, legal solutions in this complex area and the practical work of the ANB in their implementation.
"I believe that the Parliament of Montenegro, with full responsibility, with the Decision on the composition of the Committee adopted at the plenary session, chose competent deputies, elected representatives of citizens, as members of the Security and Defense Committee, who can contribute to the quality implementation of the regulations in their jurisdiction with their professionalism, knowledge and expertise Committee, and in terms of your interest in the implementation of the control role of the Assembly in this particular case", said Laković.
He points out that it is not planned to hold a preparatory session of the Committee, where deputies would be shown how to effectively control the implementation of secret surveillance measures.
"Case of SOA" in Croatia
In neighboring Croatia, the "SOA Case" from 2018 is known, which included accusations of illegal activities of the Security Intelligence Agency (SOA), including suspicions of abuse of power by monitoring individuals, politicians and journalists, intelligence surveillance that some political actors and the media described as a potential abuse of the agency's power for political purposes.
The Committee for Internal Policy and National Security, the body in the Croatian Parliament that has jurisdiction over the work of the security services, including the SOA, initiated certain procedures following media reports on alleged illegal surveillance of politicians and journalists.
Board members requested additional information from the SOA and other relevant bodies, but faced limited access to classified information due to legal restrictions and references to state secrets.
The SOA has denied any illegal activities, stressing that their work follows a strict legal framework and that all measures were implemented in accordance with the applicable laws on security and intelligence work. They also referred to the results of their public reports and previous supervisory procedures as evidence of legal action.
After the procedure, the board did not find any formal irregularities in the work of the SOA, but recommended better cooperation between the service and parliamentary bodies in order to increase transparency and public trust.
This outcome caused dissatisfaction among some non-governmental organizations and the media, who claimed that parliamentary control was not effective enough and that a more independent assessment of the activities of the security services was needed.
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