OSCE Mission report shows need for more citizen participation in local decision-making in Montenegro

The OSCE Mission to Montenegro presented its 2012 annual report on fulfillment of good governance principles in local municipalities in Montenegro on 5 June 2013 in Podgorica.

The report was part of an OSCE-supported project to strengthen the democracy framework in Montenegro, implemented in co-operation with the Centre for Development of Non-governmental Organizations.

The three main areas covered by the report are citizens’ participation in the decision-making process at the local level, co-operation between local self-government and non-governmental organizations, and the level of transparency in the work of the municipalities.

The report findings show that citizens’ participation in decision-making process is very limited with poor use of available mechanisms and tools. Municipalities in general do inform civil society about their work and enable participation in municipal work, but direct financial support to local NGOs for addressing locally identified issues is decreasing while non-financial support in most of the municipalities does not exist as a practice.

In terms of transparency, municipalities in general publish legal acts and various reports on their websites but in most cases they do not publish contracts for work and services. In addition, only limited number of mayors had organized meetings with representatives of civil society while the form for requesting access to information cannot be found on the municipalities’ websites.

As part of the same OSCE-supported project, a report on the implementation of legislation on co-operation between civil society and the public sector was presented in May 2013 and a report on implementation of the Law on NGOs will be produced by the end of 2013.