According to the Law, public officials shall mean the persons elected or appointed in a state body, state administration body, judicial authority, local self-government body, local administration body, independent body, regulatory body, public institution, company or legal person exercising public authority or activities of public interest or that is state-owned, as well as the persons whose election or appointment is subject to consent by an authority, regardless of the duration of their office and remuneration.

Taking a consistent approach to the fulfilment of obligations arising from the provisions of both the Law on the Prevention of Corruption, which entered into force on 12 June 2024, and the law which was previously in force, the Agency points out that during the previous period, through a "creative" interpretation of the provision of Article 3 of the Law, a large number of persons was included in the records of public officials, although there was no basis therefor, nor was there any assessment concerning a large increase in the number of public officials.

Namely, the persons concerned have been appointed by the authorities or the Government of Montenegro to working bodies (groups, commissions, councils and other bodies) which are formed not as working bodies which are to participate in decision-making, but to implement legal competences, give guidelines, implement strategies, and to fulfil similar goals set out in the decisions establishing those bodies, from which it follows that these persons are not, nor can they be, persons with the status of public officials. The persons who already have the status of a public official and are appointed to those working bodies are obliged to report such membership to the Agency as a membership of a working body.

Additionally, the terms “elected or appointed”, which can be found in the acts setting up the aforementioned bodies, are not and cannot be a decisive reason for classifying a person as a public official.

The Agency also points to Article 9 paragraph 2 of the Law which was previously in force, as well as to Article 11 paragraph 2 of the current law, which stipulate that the membership of a public official appointed or elected to a permanent or temporary working body set up by an authority shall not be considered an exercise of two or more public functions.

The Agency for the Prevention of Corruption will repeal all decisions and opinions in which this provision of the Law on the Prevention of Corruption is interpreted in the opposite way. ​