Montenegro could have two special open data portals by the middle of 2025

Montenegro could have two special open data portals by the middle of 2025, it was announced at the panel "The state of open data and digitization in the Western Balkans", organized by BIRN Montenegro.

As reported by BIRN, Montenegro currently has one open data portal that was launched in 2018, but the portal became non-functional after a cyber attack on the state IT infrastructure in August 2022.

Lidija Ljumović from the Ministry of Public Administration (MJU) said that the new portal will be installed by December 14, explaining that it will be significantly more advanced than the existing one.

"We worked intensively to restore the portal to function, but it was not possible. With the support of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), we chose a company that will work on the establishment of a completely new portal and it is certain that it will be established by December 14 year," Ljumović said.

"The biggest challenge will be how to oblige 1.300 institutions to proactively publish data," she added.

And the Secretary General of the Parliament of Montenegro, Aleksandar Klarić, announced that the Montenegrin Parliament will have its own open data portal in the middle of next year.

Klarić assessed that the Parliament of Montenegro is the most transparent in the country in terms of data openness, stating that this has been confirmed by international research.

"Open data is something that must be one of the key agendas of every state body... Cyber ​​protection of the Parliament is the best in Montenegro, and with the degree of openness and transparency we equally protect our institutions," Klarić said.

Presenting the regional report on open data and e-government in the Western Balkans, the executive director of BIRN Montenegro Vuk Maraš said that the potential of open data in the region is still not fully recognized as a driver of good governance.

Teams from six BIRN offices in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Serbia participated in the research.

"A key problem remains throughout the region – laws look better on paper than they are in reality, i.e. in their actual implementation. Most national strategies are aligned with EU standards. However, the EU has repeatedly warned that the level of progress is limited." , Maras said.

"National governments should develop strategies to ensure data and document management processes, with a clear document hierarchy, access level and data flow. Laws should prescribe which data sets institutions must regularly publish," he added.

The director of the National Democratic Institute for Montenegro (NDI), Slavica Biljarska Mirčeski, believes that for the proactive publication of open data, the joint work of various interested parties is necessary.

"This is not what comes from the Government, but something that needs to be agreed upon between different parties, and the civil sector plays a key role... It is necessary to ask citizens what they need from data, and through strategic documents to indicate for what needs it will be opened use data," said Biljarska Mirčeski.

The President of the Council of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (ASK), Pavle Ćupić, pointed out that the increase in the number of data available to the public reduces the scope for misuse and corruption.

He believes that the future portal should publish detailed data on the winners of public tenders, so that the KAS can control them during the monitoring of the financing of political parties.

"For the work of the Agency itself, it would be of great importance for state institutions to publish as much data as possible. It is necessary for ASK to create a software solution that will connect all the databases it owns, in order to be as effective as possible in its work," said Ćupić.

Zoran Vujičić, member of the Council of the Agency for the Protection of Personal Data and Free Access to Information (AZLP), said that the Agency, as a second-level authority for requests for free access to information, is overwhelmed by a huge number of complaints that they have to act on in a short period of time.

"Institutions that do not submit data do not bear any responsibility. Only when someone is fined, even if it is a misdemeanor for not publishing data, things will change," said Vujičić.