The Union of Municipalities of Montenegro organized a training on the topic "Case Law of the Administrative Court Regarding the Costs of Administrative Proceedings" for employees of local tax authorities and for chief administrators, as well as for all others who decide on requests for free access to information.
There were more than 50 participants at the training, which, as they say, showed how important this topic is for municipalities, and ultimately for citizens.
"Namely, systematic abuse of legal possibilities and procedural rights by individual lawyers and NGOs is draining millions of euros from local budgets intended for services, infrastructure... This phenomenon, which has gained momentum in the last ten years, raises the alarm for urgent changes to the laws that enable them to do this, but also for initiating proceedings against individual lawyers for violating the code of ethics, and even for criminal charges," the statement reads.
Lecturers in training, judges of the Administrative Court Davor Stojković i Vladimir Orovic, They used specific examples to show the ways of abuse and the courts' positions on these issues.
"These are cases where the real estate tax is set at a minimum amount, while in the repeated procedure it is reduced by a few cents upon appeal. Lawyers enter into these procedures only to collect costs according to the lawyer's fee, which can amount to several thousand euros per case. How lucrative a 'business' this has become is shown by one of the numerous recent examples where a well-known law firm simultaneously filed 80 standard complaints requesting costs for access to the hearing and for commenting on the results of the investigation procedure, which is a minimum of 800 euros per case, or a total of 64 thousand euros for this action alone," say the Association of Municipalities.
Examples of filing lawsuits without a party's power of attorney or with a power of attorney issued for one case that is misused in other cases are also cited.
"The primary question here is the very way in which they reach so many citizens who give them powers of attorney. This issue should be seriously investigated in the coming period in cooperation with the Bar Association of Montenegro, which must protect the legal profession and prevent its compromise," they add.
The training also included examples of abuse of the right to free access to information.
"On this basis, just one lawyer from Podgorica will collect around three million euros. That this is not a matter of 'administrative silence' but of abuse is shown by the fact that a huge number of standard requests are submitted in one day (up to 1000 each), which request outdated or non-existent information that needs to be resolved in a short time. 13.000 cases are filed before the Administrative Court on this basis annually. For comparison, that number in Slovenia is a little over 100," the Association of Municipalities notes.
The training analyzed procedural options that will prevent these deviations and damage to local budgets, especially in the case of conducting procedures for amending final and enforceable decisions when the Constitutional Court declares a regulation contrary to the law.
The Union of Municipalities, they remind you, has proposed to the Ministry of Finance texts with amendments to the law that will prevent the aforementioned abuses in the field of taxes, and to the Ministry of Public Administration and the Parliament of Montenegro amendments to the Law on Free Access to Information.
"We expect the innovated tax laws at the end of this year because, in partnership with the Ministry of Finance, we have agreed on the largest number of proposed solutions. We have also initiated a reduction in attorney fees for administrative procedures and disputes, but the Bar Association has not even commented on this issue. On the other hand, we were unable to influence the Law on Free Access to Information despite all efforts, so in the coming years we can expect even more intensive devastation of citizens' funds by well-known non-governmental organizations and their lawyers, who have turned the 'public's right to know' into an instrument for easy prey to the detriment of citizens," the statement reads.
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