A total of 1.354 requests for access to information of public importance (API) were sent to 15 ministries of the Government of Montenegro in the period from 1 January to 1 September this year. According to data from these departments, 110 requests were not responded to within the legal deadline. This almost idyllic picture is being undermined by parts of the executive branch, such as the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Sports and Youth, which as a rule do not fulfill this legal obligation.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP), during this period, received as many as 523 requests under the SPI. 423 requests were responded to and, as they responded to Vijesti, the procedure for the remaining requests is ongoing. 140 complaints were filed with the MUP due to the silence of the administration, of which 70 were adopted by decision and information was provided to the applicants.
141 requests were sent to the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation. Only two requests were not responded to, with 21 complaints due to the silence of the administration. Two lawsuits were also filed against this ministry during this period due to the silence of the administration.
All requests received were responded to by the Ministry of European Affairs, the Ministry of Public Works, the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Agriculture, Water Management and Forestry, the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, the Ministry of Regional Investment Development and Cooperation with Non-Governmental Organizations, the Ministry of Tourism, the Ministry of Public Administration and the Ministry of Diaspora.
In other ministries that responded to Vijesti's inquiry, only a few requests were not answered, and if we do not count the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Education, 15 complaints were received in 13 departments due to the silence of the administration.
The Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Sports and Youth did not respond to a direct inquiry about their record when it comes to the availability of information of public importance, just as these two departments remained silent on most requests under the SPI that a Vijesti journalist sent them during 2025 via the MANS application "Ask the Institutions".
The Ministry of Sports and Youth, for example, despite the urgency, did not respond to requests requesting documents on the minister's education, including a college diploma, as well as data on entertainment expenses, official cars, facsimiles of employment contracts, and information on the minister's travel expenses.
However, the department headed by Dragoslav Šćekić responded to a request for payments based on lawsuits over the administration's silence since May 26th and to a request for payments to churches and other religious organizations that they did not have the requested information.
The decision on two lawsuits ordered the Ministry of Sports and Youth to make a decision on the requests from 2024.
The situation with the Ministry of Health is almost identical. This department, headed by Vojislav Šimun, was also unwilling to provide data on the minister's education, representation expenses, service contracts, consulting contracts, payment of the variable part of the salary, payments to advisors...
During 2025, after the appeal, the Ministry of Health only responded to the request for official cars sent on July 21, 2025. The second response was that they did not have information about payments based on claims under the SPI.
According to opinion Dragoljub Duško Vuković, a long-time journalist, editor and media analyst, the main reasons for ignoring requests include the lack of effective sanctions for non-compliance with the law as institutions are rarely punished, leading to “administrative silence” without consequences.
"Since our public servants have a thick beard, public shaming for disrespecting the law is not helpful. Strict penalties would, step by step, create a culture of responsibility among those who are not given the power to rule, but to manage public affairs in the interest of all. Criminal policy could be expanded to include the artful practice of exceptions, which is justified by the protection of privacy or business secrets, when it is not justified at all," said Vuković.
He believes that the attitude towards SPI in Montenegro directly reflects the general attitude of politicians towards transparency and accountability.
"To a large extent, the failure to respond to requests signals a lack of political will for openness, which points to a systemic problem where priority is given to protecting the interests of the elite instead of citizens. This speaks to a weak democratic culture, where information is seen as a tool of power, not a right of citizens – especially in the context of the fight against corruption and organized crime. Politicians often see citizens as passive observers (who waste their activism on elections), rather than active participants in governance, which undermines trust in institutions," Vuković said.
Duško Vuković believes that the attitude towards SPI in state institutions could change, but first the law should be amended to introduce stricter sanctions for non-compliance, such as fines and disciplinary measures for officials, while strengthening the role of the Agency for Personal Data Protection and Free Access to Information.
"In addition, proactive disclosure of information should be improved - institutions should be required to publish key data on their websites, which would reduce the number of requests and abuses. Third, educate officials through training and improve resources for processing requests, including digitalization of the process. All of this would, of course, require political will, but also pressure for implementation from relevant external sources," concludes Duško Vuković.
Mila Radulović, president of the Society of Professional Journalists of Montenegro (DPNCG), believes that the implementation of the Law on Free Access to Information has always depended on whether someone, an individual or a department, has something to hide from the public or not.
"Those who have dubious contracts, tenders, decisions are rightly afraid of public scrutiny and try to ignore requests or submit data that is useless or obscured. However, the reason can often be sheer negligence in fulfilling this obligation, because fines under Administrative Court rulings are not paid from their own pockets, but from the state," warns Radulović, noting that sometimes the reason is also the lack of awareness of the responsibility of public officials towards the citizens who elect them and the fact that they are paid by them.
The President of the DPNCG points out that parties now treat state institutions as their own cronies, and money from the state treasury as something that is "great for waste".
"When the media asks them about it, they get angry, boycott the media and come up with conspiracy theories. No one cares that the role of journalists is to critically monitor the work of the government and that free media is the foundation of a democratic society. They throw around platitudes on Journalists' Day, and when there are concrete situations, they treat the media as a service," points out Mila Radulović.
She believes that it is necessary to first pass a law that will not allow information to be hidden and to implement it.
"In order for institutions to respect the Law on SPI, the Government, whose work is not transparent and which makes decisions on electronic units, without even ministers knowing what they are voting for, should do so first. What kind of message does that send to ministers and directors," asks the president of the DPNCG.
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