After more than six months and public criticism, the Ministry of Finance and Social Welfare (MFSW) responded to our requests for free access to information related to the budget spending for the period after the election of the new Government of Montenegro.
Complete data on spending from the state budget in the period December 2020 – May 2021 can be downloaded at the following link: https://t.co/M0VL7ddwa6?amp=1
We expected that in the conditions of widely criticized temporary funding of public spending, MFSW itself would be interested in publishing as much data as possible, but that was not the case. Thus, for example, MANS received data on spending from January only today. This was a serious violation of the Law on Free Access to Information, which is why MANS complained to the competent Agency for Free Access to Information, but MFSW ignored the decisions of that institution as well.
Na ovom linku možete pogledati potrošnju budžeta i konkretne isplate od 12/2020. do kraja 05/2021. godine
— NVO MANS (@NVOMANS) June 29, 2021
👇https://t.co/M0VL7ddwa6
Nadamo se da će @MiniFinME ubuduće ove informacije mjesečno objavljivati na svom sajtu, te da za 06/2021. neće trebati 6 mjeseci + javna prozivka https://t.co/uTeXIQz7Oy
Although we welcome Minister Spajić’s decision to promptly allow access to information after public criticism from MANS, we hope that this attitude towards the Law on Free Access to Information will not become a practice, i.e. that we will not wait another six months for the next data on budget spending.
For years, MANS has been advocating for proactive disclosure of information of public interest as an excellent model that provides maximum transparency of work of the state institutions, significantly increases efficiency in the implementation of the Law on Free Access to Information and, finally, provides citizens and all stakeholders with an important tool for civilian control of the government work.
In this regard, the intention of the Ministry of Finance and Social Welfare to start proactively publishing data on the budget spending on its website as early as next month is encouraging, since it should significantly improve access to this type of information.
MANS
