(Podgorica, 28 September 2012) – On the International Day for Access to Information, in Montenegro the majority of institutions don’t want to release information about the degree to which they are abusing state resources in order to support campaigning by the ruling coalition for the upcoming elections.
Throughout the world, September 28 is being marked around the world as the International Day for Access to Information. The right to access information is one of the basic human rights and is guaranteed by a number of international documents, including the European Convention on Human Rights. In Montenegro, the Constitution guarantees access to information, as does the law and other international agreements that Montenegro has signed, ratified and adopted.
Since the law was adopted, MANS has been monitoring its implementation by testing the political will and readiness of institutions to act transparently and share information requested by citizens. With over 47,000 of access to information requests filed, MANS represents the organization with the greatest experience with access to information issues (not only in Montenegro, but in the whole region). The information received as a result is used to advance the rights of citizens in accessing information and holding authorities to account by investigating violations of the law, cases of corruption and instances of organized crime.
Given the current campaigning in the lead up to parliamentary elections, MANS has used the Law on Access to Information to monitor manipulations of state resources and the degree to which the Law on the Financing of Political Parties is being respected. In accordance with these laws, state and municipal institutions are barred from hiring new persons on short-term contracts during the election period, to spend more from their budgets than they did in the six months prior to the elections being declared, or to run campaigns on behalf of political parties.
For this reasons, since the declaration of elections, MANS has submitted over 900 access to information requests to national and municipal institutions, requesting information that would indicate whether or not these institutions have acted in accordance with the law (or if they had as in previous elections used their resources illegally in order to support the campaigning of the ruling party). In nearly 60% of the cases, the institutions we addressed did not reply to our queries (including the Ministry of Transportation and Maritime Affairs, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Ministry of Sustainable Development and tourism, the Ministry of Education and Sport, the Ministry of Finance, the Public Enterprise (JP) for Managing the Coastal Region, the Airports of Montenegro, as well as local institutions like JP Communal Services in Plevlja and JP Communal Affairs in Plav.
Furthermore a number of institutions failed to submit information concerning their budgetary expenses, including: the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, the Ministry of Education and Sport, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Transportation and Maritime Affairs, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Society, the Ministry of Science, the Investment and Development Fund of Montenegro, the Directorate for the Development of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises, the Prosecutors’ Council, the Supreme State Prosecutors’ Office of Montenegro, the Government’s Commission for the Distribution of Budgetary Resources as well as numerous municipal secretariats and the majority of Centres for Social Work (CSR).
Nor did a number of institutions respond when it came to information about their hiring practices in recent months, including: the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, the Ministry of Education and Sports, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Transport and Maritime Affairs, the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Society, the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, the Ministry of Science, the University of Montenegro, the General Secretariat of the Government, the Health Insurance Fund of Montenegro, the Investment and Development Fund of Montenegro, the Directorate for Development of Small and Medium Enterprises, the Supreme State Prosecutor of Montenegro, the Department of Statistics, the Ministry of Finance, the Budget and Treasury Committee, as well as local institutions: JU “Cultural Center” Berane, the Agency for Environmental Protection, the Regional Office in Bar and the Secretariat for Economy and Finance of the Municipality of Rožaje. Data on employment were also not submitted by the main administrators in Andrijevica, Bijelo Polje, Herceg Novi, Kolasin, Plav, Plužine, Tivat, Zabljak and Cetinje.
On the other hand, of those institutions that did submit responses, we managed to identify a substantial number of abuses of state resources and violations of the Law on the Financing of Political Parties. MANS plans on reporting all of these irregularities to the State Electoral Commission (DIK) and expects that it will initiate sanctions against the offending institutions and individuals responsible for violating the law. MANS will also report these violations to state prosecutors if there is suspicion that criminal acts were carried out related to corruption or in violation of people’s voting rights. However, in the following days we’ll also inform the relevant international organizations about the violations of these laws, including the ODIHR mission in Montenegro. We’ll also keep the Montenegrin public appraised of these issues.
MANS is calling on all citizens who want to report violations of state resources for the elections, illegal employment of persons by state institutions during the campaign, pressures exerted on potential voters or some other version of electoral manipulation to do so by calling the following number 020/266-326, to send an email to mans@t-com.me or to report them through our website www.mans.com (your anonymity will be guaranteed).
