Brussels, 10 May 2001 – At the invitation of the European Commission, MANS organized a meeting today with representatives of the General Directorate for EU Enlargement in Brussels. In the context of talks related to democracy, the rule of law, the reform of the judiciary, civil society and the fight against corruption and organized crime, MANS drew attention to the key problems confronting Montenegro in fulfilling its conditions for EU accession.
In terms of concrete results achieved in the fight against corruption and organized crime, MANS highlighted the worrying fact that implementation of measures outlined in the Action Plan is very low. The most recent information available to MANS indicate that only 13% of the 266 measures outlined in the Action Plan have been realized in their entirety.
We particularly underlined the continued lack of political will in carrying out the fight against corruption at the highest levels of government. This is best illustrated by the Zavala affair, which after more than two years of investigation, still has failed to bring charges against Svetozar Marović and the former Minister of Urban Planning, Branimir Gvozdenović. There is enough evidence made available to the Prosecutor’s Office to address directly their role in the whole affair. Even though the Prosecutor’s Office has admitted that the case was brought to its attention by MANS, it has yet to invite us or to consulted us (even though we are the ones who provided them with new information on several occasions).
Problems of corruption and organized crime in the urban planning sector are something that MANS has also attempted to draw attention to given the European Commission’s repeated admonitions that corruption in this sector is a particularly worrying phenomenon. Even though illegal construction was defined as a criminal act in Montenegro since 2008, the processing of such cases is still largely focused on the “small fry” while large-scale investors, responsible for the greatest damage, have yet to face any consequences. Besides illegal construction, MANS has also drawn attention to the substantial number of cases of abuse of administrative position that were noted but not processed. This is especially relevant when it comes to cases involving the accountability of mayors and cabinet ministers – further underscoring the need to drastically alter the practices of the Prosecutor’s Office and the Police.
At its meeting with representatives of the Directorate for Enlargement, MANS also drew attention to the Police Directorate’s role in fighting corruption and organized crime. Notable were its shortcomings in cooperating with the judiciary and the Prosecutor’s Office. The chronic lack of political will in the Police is especially marked when it comes to its director Veselin Veljović. These Police Directorate flaws and its tendency to deflect responsibility when criticized was particularly marked, and still is, in relation to the “Balkan Warrior” affair where the main individual suspected of smuggling over 2 tons of cocaine, Darko Šarić, was able to successfully evade law-enforcement in Montenegro.
We also highlighted the fact that when it comes to criminal prosecutions and convictions, there were no convictions resulting in the permanent confiscation of property illegally obtained through corruption or organized crime. While some assets, worth less than a million euros, were in fact frozen, we find the fact that the police’s special-investigations team only managed to undertake a total of four investigation and two financial investigations in all of 2010 particularly alarming.
When it comes to reforms of the judiciary, MANS pointed to the incredibly low level of transparency of court proceedings, including the fact that some courts in Montenegro are still “fostering” the practice of hiding their decisions from the public. We also noted problems with the promptness of court decisions and the statistics that they produce when it comes to cases of corruption already concluded. There still exists a tendency for ordinary criminal acts to be listed as acts of corruption, which ultimately provides a totally flawed picture of the judiciary’s efficiency in fighting corruption (by simply adding up the number of convictions).
Another problem related to the judiciary is caused by cases in which the costs of the investigation are several times higher than the damage caused by the particular instance of small-scale corruption (cases which often aren’t even processed to the end in spite of several years of wasting tax payer money).
When it comes to government transparency, unfortunately MANS has noted that the new Government has retained some of the practices established by its previous Prime Minister when it comes to releasing information on key government decisions. This is illustrated by the case of the Valdanos tender where the government has continued to publicly deny access to relevant documentation; even though this is in the public interest in order to bring the responsible government ministers to account. A similar situation obtains with respect to information that would reveal the real costs and risks related to the building of new energy infrastructures in Montenegro.
Along these lines it is worth noting that certain progress has been made when it comes to Government cooperation with the NGO sector. However, this cooperation remains at a declaratory level and is often conditioned by the level of sensitivity of a given topic.
Issues of freedom of speech are again another cause for concern. The government continues to seek excuses for not decriminalizing current libel laws; this, in spite of the clear recommendations coming from Brussels to do so. MANS also drew attention to the worrying trend of cases being filed to target journalists and NGO sector activists in order to silence advocacy work. Since public functionaries began using this strategy to silence their critics, complaints are now increasingly being brought before the courts by individuals who are members of organized crime structures.
The European Court for Human Rights rulings on freedom of speech means little in Montenegro since the courts there aren’t equipped to implement their decisions consistently. Incentives aren’t even coming from Montenegro’s Superior Court where it is said that judges “should” attempt to follow the decisions established by the Court in Strasbourg. Such an environment results in new “libel” cases consistently being brought forward against the government’s critics.
When it comes to Montenegro’s parliament, MANS emphasized the inadequate use of parliament’s monitoring function, as well as the lack of institutional cooperation with citizens. We drew particular attention to the role that the parliament should play in the fight against corruption and organized crime given its centrality to the conditions that Montenegro must meet on its way towards the European Union. MANS noted the fact that, unfortunately, the Parliament has yet to establish a separate working body to undertake the fight against corruption, even though this was mandated by a resolution adopted by a consensus vote more than three years ago.
Today in its meeting with representatives of the Directorate for EU Enlargement MANS presented only a portion of the comments that will be referred to the European Commission for its Opinion and the new Commission Report on Montenegro’s progress for this year.
Dejan Milovac
Deputy Executive Director/Urban Development Programme Director
