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OPEN GOVERNMENT - Government accessible to cit izens Prime Minister Igor Luki announced in his expos that he presented to the Members of the Parliament in December 2010 that he would strive for consistent application of the Law on Free Access to Information and promote the role of civil society in creating public policies. Soon after assuming his function, the Prime Minister affirmed the dialogue and open partnership as the basic guidelines of the wor k of the new Gover nment through initiation of the Consultation Days - a series of consultative meetings with the most significant social actors. During the Consultation Days a dialogue was initiated with regard to the key national issues and the Gover nment strongly committed to greater transparency in public administration, facilitating better access to information for media, civil sector and general public as well as closer communication between the Gover nment and all relevant social actors. Montenegro is supporting and will continue to suppor t and promote the culture of opennes s of administration authorities; it will proactively publish information and encourage citizens to exercise their right to access information, and also instil confidence in citizens regar ding the institutions of the system. It is exactly the commitment to these goals that guided the Government of Montenegro to get engaged in the Open Government Par tnership Initiative in September 2011. This initiative is a significant incen tive for implementation of the concept of good management in Montenegro. Also, Montenegro wishes to be a part of the global networ k and take part in exchange of experience and knowledge in this area. Given that the idea that this initiative is based on is the preparation of the Action Plan in direct communication of the gover nment and non- gover nment sectors, the Government of Montenegro implemented the entire process of preparation of the Action Plan in cooperation with the representatives of the USA Embass y in Montenegro and support and contribution of non-governmental organisations which expressed their interest through active participation. The Government of Montenegro has already recognised the significance of cooperation and establishment of partnerships with non- governmental organisations for further development of Montenegro and its process of association to the European Union; therefore in 2009 it adopted the Cooperation Strategy between the Government of Montenegro and non-governmental organisations. In addition to building a democratic and open society, the Strategy also defines the improvement of transparency of work of administration authorities, preservation of independence and significance of the role of NGO, creation of partnership relations be tween NGO and government institutions, creation of institutional mechanisms for improvement and further development of cooperation and mutual communication and improvement of work conditions for NGO. Thus the position regarding the significance of the role of non-governmental organisations and mutual cooperation as an assumption for overall development of Montenegro as a democratic and open state is clearly pointed out. Increase of openness of the wor k of government authorities, cherishing the transparency principle in engagement of NGO in processes of creating public policy acts, joint projects and presentations contributed to better understanding and closer cooperation of the Government and civil society recognition of the need for joint actions and strengthening of confidence in each other. NGO representatives are members of the Wor king Groups for preparation of regulator y frameworks, consultative and advisor y bodies such as: Anti -Discrimination Council, Council for Childrens Rights, Council for Care for Disabled Persons, Commission for Allocation of the Part of Revenues from Games of Chance, Commission for Monitoring the Results of the Fight against Organised Crime and Corr uption, National Council for Sustainable Development. Montenegro formally established and improved the regulator y framewor k for NGO operations in Montenegro through adoption of the new Law on Non-Governmental Organisations, the Decree on the Manner and
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Proposal agenda for Government sessions; Material that the Government considers at the session if the same is not subject to a specific level of secrecy in line with law: draft laws, bills, public cons ultation repor ts, proposal decrees, decisions, strategies, plans, reports and briefs, draft or proposal agreements, proposal resolutions on nomination, appointment or release from duty; Verified conclusions of the Government, adopted with regard to consideration of the published material.
In the coming period the Government will also be committed to affirmation of this Decision gover nment authorities will be invited to obser ve this decision and enable citizens to have insight in the documents under their relevant scope of competence. 6. Electronic administration portal eAdministration Portal All services at one place - In 2011, e-administration portal was developed aimed to enable electronic communication between
The Programme is aimed at raising the level of confidence of citizens in institutions through increase of transparency of work of the Government of Montenegro, increase of the level of information and knowledge of citizens regarding the institutions of the system, creating a direct link between the citizens and the Government, as well as preparation of a new HR base for work in government institutions and with practical experience complementing theoretical study programmes. Under the project, the CDT prepared a comparative analysis of legislation and good practices related to openness and transparency of the work of the Government, and with the team of the General Secretariat they worked on implementation of quality solutions. The Government of Montenegro implemented a major par t of recommendations for increase of openness and transparency that it received from the CDT, including publishing of information on the portal, adoption of new regulations for improvement of communication with citizens and increase of their impact on decision-making. 8. Social networ king presence of the government Government is where t he cit izens are The new way of creating public policies through wide consultations with all stakeholders from Montenegrin society created a fertile soil for communication through social netw orks. Taking into consideration that participation of citizens is shifting to online space which enables direct communication, these tools provide for valuable insight into the positions of the public regarding numerous important decisions and policies passed by the Gover nment.
The Government, Prime Minister, individual members of the Government and ministries are currently having direct, tw o-way communication with citizens through social networks such as FB, YouTube, Twitter and blogs, and also communication with international public. Prime Minister is the promoter of this policy an d by his personal example he invited other government authorities to be present in social networ ks. Recognising the role of the Inter net in promoting and creating public policies, as well as increasing of the social networ king presence of citizens, in the coming period the Gover nment will cherish and improve the communication with citizens through social networks by following the best international experiences, and enable citizens to take par t in creating policies of general and public significance by providing their comments, suggestions, criticism, proposals. 9. Public Consultations Decision- making cit izens Public consultations are another way of engaging the public in the decision-making process. For the pur pose of clear determination of cases and procedures for implementation of public consultations, the Government of Montenegro passed the Decree on the Manner and Procedure of Implementation of Public Consultations in Preparation of Laws. The process of development of this Decree and the Decree on the Manner and Pr ocedure of Cooperation of State Administration Authorities and Non-Governmental Organisations was initiated by the Centre for Development of Non-Governmental Organisations (CRNVO). Namely, in January 2011 the implementation of the CRNVO project Active par ticipation of civil society in the process of creating and applying public policies commenced in cooperation with the Centre for Information, Cooperation and Development (CNVOS) from Slovenia and with financial suppor t of the EU. The overall
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INCREASING PUBL IC INTEGR ITY 11. Free access to infor mation under the possession of the government Citizen is ent itled to ask and to know Free access to information is regulated by the Constitution of Montenegro. Also, this area is regulated by the Law on Free Access to Information. In the previous period Montenegro paid a lot of attention to improvement of the situation in this area. 12. Media freedoms In order to improve and foster media freedoms, the Criminal Code was amended for the purpose of fur ther decriminalisation of libel. Development of media pluralism indicates a clear and consistent commitment, since grand challenges that are ahead of us are equally important for both the state and media, w ho must always emphasise and acknowledge the right of the public to know in their wor k. Still, the challenge remains regarding the resolving of the cases of mur der and assault on journalists. 13. Code of Ethics for senior-grade and lower-grade civ il servants Adoption and implementation of the Code of Ethics promote the ethical standards and r ules of conduct of civil ser vants in per forming their tasks aimed at creating of common good, achieving public interest and fostering confidence of citizens in the work of government authorities. Thus is provided a base for improvement of the wor k of gover nment authorities and employed staff in performing tasks under the scope of their competencies, which are of significance for exercise of rights of citizens and their statutory interests . 14. Prevention of corrupt ion Repor ting of corruption is an important source for detecting and preventing corruption. For the purpose of increasing transparency of this area, the Anti -Corruption Initiative Administration is continuously promoting channels for reporting corruption and protection mechanisms, as well as good examples of corruption repor ting, and organises opinion polls regarding the improvement of the situation. There are 12 institutions which have hotlines and which otherwise accept corruption reporting, and they are: Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education and Sports, Judicial Council, Supreme State Prosecution, National Police, Customs Administration, Tax Administration, Administration for Games of Chance, Public Procurement Directorate, Anti -Corruption Initiative Administration, Investment Development Fund of Montenegro, and since April 2011 citizens and other interested parties also have the option to report corruption and organised crime to the National Committee for implementation of the Strategy for fight against corruption a nd or ganised crime, or the Secretariat of the National Committee.
Transparency of the work of the public sector is of great significance for the systems that are subject to changes, when new rules and procedures are established. Transparency is of special significance in public finances. How much and in whose favour the state spends, how is it financed and by which instruments, what is the amount of public debt are only some of the information that must be accessible to taxpayers. The Ministry of Finance posts monthly and quarterly analytical data on generated revenues, expenditures, public debt and deposits on its website. All draft laws and strategies are also posted on the website . Conference for media at the occasion of marking the most significant activities of the Ministry of Finance in the first quarter 2011, Minister of Finance, Milorad Katni
17. Budget transparency For the purpose of increasing fiscal transparency, the state administration authority responsible for finance affairs Ministr y of Finance publishes monthly Macroeconomic Review, a publication that keeps track of the trends of macroeconomic and fiscal indicators on monthly level. The idea originated from the need of users of data and analyses for brief and comprehensive reviews. Budget transparency remains a challenge for some spending units.
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CREATING SA FER COMMUNITIES 19. Police in the community The work of the police is a long-term and complex pr ocess and its carrying out improves and encourages the partnership between the citizens and the police, enhances the quality of work and professionalism of police officers, i.e. enables active participation of the community in resolving security issues and improves the quality of life of citizens who live and work in the local community. Police in the community is a transition from traditional to modern model of wor k of the police, based on the idea that police and citizens, through mutual cooperation should commit to the fact that the wor k of the police should be in the service of citizens, w ho will provide necessar y suppor t to the activities of the police. This strategy implies a change on the level of the system of police values: the key performance indicator of the police is not only the statistics of detected crimes and police actions, but also the level of confidence of citizens in the police and their sense of security. Through the wor k of the police in the community, the police gradually changes its identity and becomes a public service for citizens. However, it is still notable that the corruption and other deviant behaviour are much more repor ted to other government authorities than the police itself. For the purpose of contributing to the combat against all forms of discrimination, the cooperation between the National Police and non-governmental sector and representatives of the civil society has been strengthening continuously. This is evidenced by numerous wor king meetings with non-governmental organisations protecting the rights of disabled persons, the Council for civil control of the wor k of the police and re presentatives of national minorities. Through various activities, the National Police intensively takes care of the protection of vulnerable groups and as such it has been recognised as a positive example in the region, so in 2011 it got the award Friends of Justice that is granted by the Conference Justice in the Balkans Equality for Sexual Minorities. Police has a contact person for LGBT population, and so far it has signed and has been implementing the Memorandum on Cooperation and Understanding with NGO LGBT Forum Progres and NGO Juventas, while the signing of the Memorandum on Cooperation with NGO Akcija za ljudska prava (Human Rights Action) is in the process of preparation.
INCREASING CORPORA TE ACCOUNTA BILITY 20. Encouraging dialogue and partnership for sustainable development between the Government and business sector in Montenegr o As par t of the Project Encouraging dialogue
and partnership for sustainable development between the Government and business sector in Montenegro , implemented by the Division for Support to the National Council for Sustainable
Development of the Ministr y of Sustainable Development and Tourism (formerly the Office for Sustainable Development) in cooperation with the Government of the Netherlands (the Project commenced in 2011 and will last until December 2012), the representatives of local self-gover nments in Montenegro and business community had the opportunity to get acquainted with the best practice examples for corporate social responsibility and sustainable development in the Netherlands by attending a study visit to government institutions, regional organisations and companies. Visits particular emphasis was on sustainable consumption and production, management of waste,
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UN Global Compact is a largest global initiative in the area of corporate social responsibility launched by the United Nations in 1999. 8
IMPROVING PUBL IC SERVICES 1. Involv ing representatives of non-governmental sector in the work of the Pr ivatisat ion Council Montenegro will define clear and objective criteria and carr y out the procedure for enabling participation of NGOs in the wor k of the Privatisation Council over the coming period in line with the principle of involving civil sector in public policies. In order to increase the transparency of the privatisation process, the Government will, as one of the contractual parties, invest additional efforts, in line with international practice, for concluded contracts not to contain the data confidentially clause w hich prevents publications of contracts after those are signed (effective). 2. Impr ovement of business environment Implementation of following activities is planned to further improve the business environment: a. Establishment of an electronic registration of enter prises; b. Implementation of the 1st phase of the inspection system reform, which will undertake a gradual merging of inspectorates and extracting them from ministries and administration authorities; c. Implementation of new legislative mechanisms in the process of issuing building permits; d. Establishment of a special administration authority in order to support implementation of investment and development projects. 3. E-register of licenses A reform of business licensing in Montenegro is implemented in order to create a single and transparent system for business licensing. According to the results of performed analysis, conclusion was that it is not needed to establish an independent institution i.e. a special licensing centre, but that the most positive e ffect could be obtained by creating an e-register of licenses by adopting a regulator y framework that would establish a public-private par tnership for keeping and updating such register. 4. Regulatory Guillot ine The Government will carry out activities aimed to finalise this process in the next period. Ministry of Finance will, by reviewing recommendations which are feasible for implementation in the regulatory framewor k of Montenegro, in cooperation with line authorities prepare an Action Plan of measures to improve areas covered by recommendations. Such prepared Action Plan for implementation of the Regulator y Guillotine recommendations, inclusive of indicative deadlines for implementation, once adopted by the Government will represent an overview of regulations that need to be revised, in line with the implementation schedule. A quarterly evaluation will be carried to monitor implementation of recommendations. 5. Regulatory Impact Assessment In or der to try to ensure a full implementation of the Regulator y Impact Analysis, the Government will, over the next period, continue to train civil servants and appl y the Regulatory Impact Assessment in the pr ocess of preparation of the Work Pr ogramme of the Government as well; while over a medium-term horizon a ful l RIA will be implemented, which includes the analysis of economic impacts of laws, environmental impact assessment, social standing of citizen, gender equality 6. Refor m of employ ment of foreigners Procedures for employment of foreigners were simplified and made more transparent. The Government of Montenegro implemented the reform of employment of foreigners, resulting in reducing numerous deadlines for state authorities decision-making, w hile some of
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MA NA GING PUBLIC RESOURCES MORE EFFECTIVELY 22. Public procurement Help desk Focus of Montenegro in the next period will be directed towards the development and improvement of the Help desk for advisory and consulting services and special group for repor ting irregularities. 23. Activity how corrupt ion distorts the public procurement process Montenegro will commit to adopt relevant regulations and define training modules; regulations on the programme and manner of taking a professional exam in the area of public procurement; development of a manual, flyers, bulletin on increasing awareness in the segment how corruption distorts the public procurement process and development of instr uctions on how to report irregularities in public procurement procedures. Furthermore, the focus will be on carrying out a campaign on raising awareness transparency in public procurement. 24. Establishing central public procurement bodies A contracting authority designated by way of a Governments regulation will carry out public procurements for the needs of state authorities and public services, while for the needs of local self-government units a contracting authority will be designated by way of regulation of the competent local self-government authority. 25. Electronic public procurement system A conceptual design for the project of assistance, within a framework agreement to be financed by the Delegation of the European Commission to Montenegro called Strengthening of the Public Procurement System in Montenegro is submitted, covering improvement of the Law on Public Procurement in the segment of municipal ser vices sector, institutional framewor k and strengthening administrative capacities of the Public Procurement Administration (trainings), consolidation of public procurements or implementation of the public procurement pr ocedure by another contracting authority, as well as a solution for development of the technical specification geared towards the introduction of an electronic public procurement system. The commencement of the project implementation is planned for 2 May 2012, with the completion date being 1 May 2013. 26. Budget transparency In order to increase transparency of use of public funds, the Gover nment of Montenegro will amend the organic Law on Budget to define in a more precise manner dates in the budgeting calendar, aimed at providing sufficient time to all participants in the planning process, including also the parliamentary procedure. Furthermore, intr oduction of specific fiscal rules and medium-term budgeting is also planned, which will increase significantly the transparency, accountability in planning and implementation, as well as precision in planning of the bud get. The Ministr y of Finance will introduce, as a standing practice, a presentation of the annual budget in a visually comprehensible and simple manner, in or der to ensure better understanding and increase public interest for budget operations. T he same practice will be also established in the process of adoption of the budget revisions.
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CREATING SA FER COMMUNITIES 27. Combat against all for ms of discr iminat ion The National Police will continue to make effor ts in the coming period, aimed at contributing to the combat against all forms of discrimination. To that end, the National Police will consistently comply with the principles of cooperation and carry out activities defined in the signed Memorandum of Cooperation with the NGO LGBT Forum Progress and NGO Juventas, as well as the Memoranda of Cooperation to be signed with other non-governmental organisation in the for thcoming period. In order to ensure adequate protection of integrity of LGBT persons, the National Police will under take additional specific measures aimed at improving required sensibility of police officers for professional conduct with LGBT persons. Furthermore, the National Police will enable to as many as possible police officer from all regional offices, w ho did not attend training on LGBT rights, to attend informational and educational activities concer ning LGBT rights, which will be carried out by relevant institutions, non- gover nmental or ganisations and/or international organisations in the next period. The National Police will organise in the coming period educational activities for police officers on conduct with disabled persons in cooperation with organisations of disabled persons, in order to contribute to the protection against discrimination of disabled persons. Moreover, the National Police will initiate activities to free -up public traffic areas used by disabled persons and will adjust the Security Centre in accordance with disabled persons needs. In the next period, the National Police will also appoint a contact person for communication with disabled persons and will define procedures for control of passengers and vehicles used by disabled passeng ers in urban, intercity and trans-border transport. 28. Impr oving media freedoms The Government will increase activities to promote media freedoms, including also resolving crimes and detecting perpetrators and conceivers of all crimes against journalists.
INCREASING CORPORA TE ACCOUNTA BILITY 29. Corporate Social Responsibility The Gover nment of Montenegro has to develop a strategic framework for corporate social responsibility in the forthcoming period, to include also defining of the sponsorships and donations segments. Such strategic framework represents one of the key doc uments is part of the promotion of the corporate social responsibility concept in Montenegro. 30. Support to associat ion of players in the society in the CSR area in Montenegro Montenegro will promote and provide support to association of social players (Government, NGOs, and business organisations) in the CSR area in Montenegro over the coming period. The support would be provided to all forms of associations and all networ ks aimed to promote CSR, including also already established networ ks and those that are yet to be established. As part of the cooperation with the Government of the Netherlands, the Division for Suppor t to the National Council for Sustainable Development of the Ministr y of Sustainable Development and Tourism, in cooperation with partners from all sectors, will
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PRIORITIES
The priorities of the Gover nment of Montenegro are measures concerning the improvement of public services and increasing public integrity.
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