The Institute of Alternatives (IA) prepared a Declaration on the fight against corruption and political clientelism in employment in the public sector with a set of recommendations related to various segments of employment in the public sector, PR Center reports.
The declaration, which will be available online, will be able to be signed by all interested citizens who agree with the recommendations related to employment planning, the implementation of the employment procedure and the protection of the rights of persons seeking employment in the public sector.
Milena Muk from the IA emphasized that the Declaration is available to all interested parties and citizens who agree with the recommendations of the IA.
"I think that only those who have an interest in continuing to use the public sector as prey for the distribution of political or other types of profits can disagree," Muk said.
The representative of the Democratic Front (DF) in the Parliament of Montenegro, Dragan Bojović, said that a decisive and uncompromising fight against corruption is the only way to heal the institutions of Montenegro.
"Clientelism is closely related to corruption, and this form of activity has appeared in different forms throughout history. Unfortunately, Montenegro stands well in that field, and that is why as a society we have to work so that everyone has an equal chance to reach the desired positions." said Bojović.
He asked "what are we going to do with people who have been discriminated against for years and that the large number of employees leads to institutions not working properly".
"We have to deal with high corruption and organized crime and free the imprisoned institutions," Bojović concluded.
Acting Director of the Human Resources Administration, Đuro Nikač, when asked whether they recognize the need to expand the scope of that law through the planned amendments to the Law on Civil Servants and State Employees and whether this is possible in relation to the existing capacities of the Administration, answered that their capacities very limited, but that they are ready to help as much as possible.
"You know that the recommendation is to transfer those things that are good, which were incorporated by the Administration, to other state bodies, especially to public companies," Nikač added.
He says that it is very important to know how many persons there are in all bodies who are engaged under a work contract.
"That's important for us to know, because it shows that certain people come in a very non-transparent way, and that later they gain the opportunity to be favored in a certain procedure," Nikač added.
Nikoleta Pavićević from the Institute of Alternatives said that they created a risk map of inappropriate influences on corruption during employment in the public sector, which is available at mapa-rizika.me.
"The goal was to make a comprehensive analysis of the legal framework in order to show how bad the legal framework actually is and how much room for maneuver is left for non-competitive employment," said Pavićević and said that she hopes the map will serve everyone who points to the same problems.
MP of the Socialist People's Party, Milosava Paunović, warned that the main problems in Montenegro are organized crime and corruption.
He says that the association of institutions at all levels is necessary, but that the umbrella institution in that process should be the Parliament of Montenegro.
"The main problem is corruption at all levels. We have to build a system in which every individual will have the same opportunity when hiring, because that's the only way we can get expert and professional staff," said Paunović.
Civic activist, Aleksandar Dragićević, said that clientelism and party recruitment are decades-old problems that even the new government has not been able to deal with.
"From IA they presented a great document and they targeted the problems and gave solutions in a fairly transparent and quick way to solve them. If we don't do that, Montenegro will be in one big problem that the public administration system will no longer be sustainable". said Dargicevic.
Senior legal adviser at the Center for Civic Education (CGO), Snežana Kaluđerović, highlighted the problem of the education system and the fact that all analyzes show that children do not receive the best education.
He says that the practice of the line minister appointing and dismissing directors of educational institutions should be stopped, as well as that the appointment process should be more transparent.
Expert Ivan Šikmanović assessed that the biggest problem is that there is no accurate data on the number of employees in the public sector.
"The public sector is not efficient enough and it is overcrowded, but despite all that, young people still want to work in the public sector the most," pointed out Šikmanović.
He also noted that it is difficult to completely remove political influence in public administration, and that leadership positions in particular are negotiated through coalition agreements, which are subsequently only verified through public tenders.
The declaration, which will be available online, will be able to be signed by all interested citizens who agree with the recommendations related to employment planning, the implementation of the employment procedure and the protection of the rights of persons seeking employment in the public sector.
On this occasion, the Institute of Alternatives invited members of the Assembly, the President and members of the Government and other institutions responsible for planning and implementing employment procedures in the public sector, as well as for the protection of the rights of persons seeking employment in the public sector, to work on fulfilling the recommendations, which would lead to reduced corruption during recruitment.
The declaration was made within the project "Neither client nor employer - For the integrity of employment in the public sector", which is supported within the program "CSOs in Montenegro - from basic services to policy formulation - M'Base", implemented by the Center for Civic Education (CGO), Fridrih Ebert Stiftung (FES), Center for Protection and Study of Birds of Montenegro (CZIP) and Politikon network. The project is financed by the European Union and co-financed by the Ministry of Public Administration.
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