Data from Transparency International’s report on the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) for the previous year show that Montenegro improved its position by one point compared to 2022.
This year’s ranking of Montenegro represents a minimal improvement compared to the previous year and does not significantly extend beyond the limits of what was the corruption perceptions index before the dismissal of the long-term DPS government and its president, Milo Đukanović.
This confirms that the state capture system has far-reaching and lasting consequences, but also that after DPS, there is still not enough political momentum among the govermnet officials to deliver significant and sustainable results in the fight against corruption.
The perception on corruption is to some extent conditioned by significant expectations of citizens that the new authorities will move away from corrupt practices and begin the painstaking process of freeing key institutions from the influence of both the organized crime and political parties.
Transparency International’s report particularly underlines the challenges the judiciary is facing and in this sense, it is in line with the latest report of the European Commission on Montenegro’s progress in the EU integration, which also questions the effectiveness of the judiciary, especially in cases of high corruption.
The election of a new Special State Prosecutor after yeas of incumbent-state was perceived as a good basis for starting the reform of the State Prosecutor’s Office, and in the coming period, we will see to what extent the political will and courage resides at that address to open the very cases due to which Montenegro still has limited progress in the fight against corruption.
Those cases, without exception, include the very subjects of political corruption, money laundering, and illicit enrichment that continue to keep Montenegro on the map of countries with insufficiently developed rule of law that cannot guarantee justice to their citizens.
MANS
