For the fifth year, the Special State Prosecutor's Office (SST) and most of the other prosecutor's offices in Montenegro have not been controlled by anyone, even though this is provided for by law.
Why was this not done when he was at the head of the VDT Ivica Stankovic, Center for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro (CIN-CG) failed to get a response. Public relations department of the current acting VDT Drazen Burić lack of justice control for various reasons - from epidemiological to lack of staff.
At the beginning of this year, the VDT made a decision on the supervision of the prosecutor's offices for 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. The work was supposed to be completed in 2021, but since this did not happen by the beginning of November, the deadlines were extended. Thus, 2021 will also pass without the supervision of the most important prosecutor's offices.
The control of prosecutor's offices is of crucial importance because, among other things, it should determine how cases are resolved, whether prosecutors act within the deadlines provided for by law, why criminal reports expire, whether plea agreements are concluded according to the procedure, how prosecutors implement financial investigations, as well as whether managers are doing their job as provided by law.
None of that has been done in the past five years in most prosecutor's offices.
The Law on the State Prosecutor's Office states that the State Prosecutor's Office supervises the work of the SDT, higher and basic prosecutor's offices through direct insight into their work and other measures for the sake of efficiency and legality. This supervision is carried out in accordance with the plan adopted by the Supreme State Prosecutor.
The law prescribes the prevention of supervision as a more severe disciplinary procedure, but also if irregularities and illegalities in the work are determined during the supervision procedure.
The Rulebook on the internal operations of the State Prosecutor's Office stipulates that the Supreme State Prosecutor's Office conducts an analysis of all prosecution offices once a year.
In the documents, which we obtained for the purposes of this text through free access to information, it is written that after several changes to the plans, it is planned that the supervision of the work of the SDT and the Higher State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica will begin in November this year, and that such control in the Higher Prosecutor's Office in Bijelo Polje and basic state prosecutor's offices in December.
However, this control will not be carried out this year either, at least not in the most important prosecutor's offices, despite numerous warnings about the work of the prosecutor's offices from the European Union (EU), as well as part of the domestic professional public.
The VDT confirmed for CIN-CG that the control over the work of the SDT was done only once, in 2017, when they checked 2016, the initial year of the Special Prosecutor's Office. Since then, the work of the chief special prosecutor Milivoj Katnić and its organizations completely without control, even though SDT is the key institution in the fight against organized crime and corruption at the highest level.
The VDT, however, did not answer the question of what was determined in the 2017 audit, nor why they have not been controlling the work of the most important prosecutor's office in the country for the fifth year.
In 2017 and 2018, supervision was carried out over the High Prosecutor's Office in Bijelo Polje and basic prosecutor's offices in Bijelo Polje, Pljevlje, Kolašin and Ulcinj, but there was no control in those institutions either in the last three years.
However, the VDT was not willing to announce what was determined by those few controls, nor why they are only now announcing that they will fulfill the legal obligations for the previous four years in all prosecutor's offices.
In their statement to CIN-CG, the competent authorities tried to justify the lack of supervision by saying that the four state prosecutors who were supposed to exercise control retired, and that the two state prosecutors who were elected in April of this year were referred to the Special State Prosecutor's Office for assistance a period of three to six months. However, all those prosecutors were in positions in the earlier period, and yet the control was not carried out.
"Also, one of the reasons for the lack of supervision is the situation caused by the covid-19 virus pandemic," according to the VDT.
The pandemic began in March 2020 and could not possibly be a justification for not fulfilling legal obligations in the previous three years.
Marić: Gross failure in work
The State Secretary in the Ministry of Justice, Human and Minority Rights, Boris Marić, for CIN-CG pointed out that it is incomprehensible that the work of the prosecutor's offices was not monitored for so long, assessing that it is a gross failure in work and obligations.
He added that the Ministry is not competent to initiate accountability proceedings for possible omissions in the part of internal supervision over the work of prosecutor's offices.
Marić reminds that the situation in the judicial system is worrisome, given that the Prosecutor's Council has not been constituted, and that the situation in the Judicial Council, the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court is either acting or on the verge of a quorum for work.
"In this context, any internal failure in work gains additional weight", said Marić, adding that it would be necessary to start a parliamentary dialogue as soon as possible, as well as that between the legislative, judicial and executive authorities.
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