The working principle of this Government will be transparent. We are even thinking of broadcasting the Government sessions, if anyone is interested. We are not hiding anything - Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapić said on December 10 last year.
Eleven months later, Government sessions are not broadcast, but many are not even held in the building, but electronically. Although this practice was introduced by the previous executive power due to the epidemiological situation, the current Government has continued with it at full throttle and decides on some important matters in this way.
Without holding traditional sessions, decisions were made, among other things, on borrowing, the purchase of an airplane for a new airline, important personnel changes - the appointment of heads of some institutions, but also some layoffs.
The editor of the Mina Agency, Milan Žugić, believes that one of the reasons for not holding sessions with the physical presence of cabinet members is the disagreement in the parliamentary majority. He also asks:
"Is it possible to make decisions that are made electronically, some important ones, is it possible to organize a discussion at the Government sessions, how high-quality are these discussions, how many opinions are exchanged in order for that decision to be made in the right way."
The way in which the sessions are held is not so problematic for the civil sector, but it is the fact that Krivokapić's cabinet does not publish all the materials after them.
That's why the Institute of Alternatives sent an initiative to the General Secretariat of the Government half a year ago to change that and thereby improve transparency. Also, they demanded that the entire agenda be published, regardless of whether some of the items are classified as confidential. It was only recently that they were told that all their requests had been rejected.
"In 2011, the Government adopted a decision on the publication of decisions from the Government session - 10 years later, not only have we not improved that decision, but we are taking a step back. What is happening now is that the Government decides without holding sessions or electronically, but at Government sessions, it does not have to that it would be a problem if the materials are published in the same way. By materials we mean what was discussed along with the conclusions and decisions of the Government. Until now, we were forced to request these materials through the requirements of the SPI, which is really worrying," said Marko Sošić from the Institute an alternative.
On the new website of the Government, announcements are no longer even published after electronic sessions, but information about them can be found in the Official Gazette. It is not uncommon for media conferences to be missed after government meetings. Žugić cites the most recent example of the dismissal of Aleksandar Damjanović from the position of acting director of the Revenue and Customs Administration.
"Journalists are denied to ask questions, it is very important for some decisions who voted for them, who was against, we can't get that information, because lately either ministers or the prime minister have been making their voices heard via Twitter and social networks ", he said.
"We have been trying for a year to get the minutes from the session, which they do not provide us - only from them we can see whether some points were discussed, if some point was declared secret, they don't even want to deliver that. 07.07 It is not about uneasy , politically sensitive topics are about transparency, which should be adopted by this Government and which should permeate its activity," adds Sošić.
Televizija Vijesti did not manage to find out exactly how many electronic sessions there were of the current government, although the government's Public Relations Service promised yesterday that they would respond as soon as possible. Data are available on the Government's website, according to which 7 electronic sessions were held from December 13 last year to May 32 this year.
On the other hand, in 2020, when we also had lockdowns due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Government of Duško Marković held 37 electronic sessions.
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