From January 1, 2020 to March 31 of last year, 1.701.600 euros were paid from the budget of Montenegro for the purpose of renting office premises of parliamentary political parties, according to data from the Center for Civic Education (CGO).
The non-governmental organization (NGO) announced that they received the data from the former Administration for Cadastre and State Property (UKID), in accordance with the Law on Free Access to Information.
As stated by CGO, for the first quarter of last year, a total of 114.464 euros was allocated for these purposes.
The NGO said that, according to available data, 2022 euros have been allocated for 540.293, 2021 euros for 517.320 and 2020 euros for 529.522.
According to the CGO, the data refer to 18 political parties.
The CGE stated that the data refer to the Socialist People's Party, Bosniak Party, New Serbian Democracy (NSD), Movement for Change, Liberal Party, Democrats, DEMOS, FORCA, Democratic People's Party, Prava Crna Gora.
The data, as they said, also refers to the United Montenegro, the Democratic Union of Albanians, the Workers' Party, Positive Montenegro, the Social Democratic Party (SDP), the Social Democrats (SD), the Albanian Alternative, the URA and two coalitions - Albanians resolutely and Albanian coalition Unanimously.
The CGO stated that there is no data for the Democratic Party of Socialists in that section because that party used premises that are state property during that time period.
"Also, in that period, for certain political entities, two business spaces were paid for in different locations (NSD, Democrats, the Albanians decisively coalition), while for some the data varied (for URA, during 2020 and 2021, funds were allocated for one space, and during 2022 and last year for two)", says the announcement.
It is stated that the monthly allocations for these needs for individual parties varied from 388 euros to 12.375 euros.
CGE said that during the analyzed period, in each year, the most funds for these purposes were allocated to NSD.
As they stated, when it comes to those for which the least was allocated, the subjects vary, so in 2020 it was Prava Montenegro, in 2021 SDP, in 2022 Albanian Alternative, and in the first quarter of last year the Democratic Alliance of Albanians.
"And overall, for this period, the most funds were allocated for NSD, and the least for the Albanian alternative," said the CGE.
They said that funds for the area of the Albanian Alternative and the Albanian Coalition Unanimous began to be allocated only in February 2022, and for SD and SDP in November 2021.
"Also, after the official of this party, Koča Đurišić, was appointed acting director of UKID in 2021, and in April 2022 as the director of that institution, NSD is the only party for which the allocated funds from UKID in 2022 were increased compared to those from 2021, while those funds for all other parties were either reduced or remained the same compared to the previous year," the statement said.
The CGE stated that the review of these documents was made through the CGE program supported by the Core grant regional project SMART Balkans - Civil society for a connected Western Balkans.
The project is implemented by the Center for the Promotion of Civil Society, the Center for Research and Public Policy and the Institute for Democracy and Mediation, and is financially supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway.
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