What is meant by the control and supervision of the election campaign by the Agency for Prevention of Corruption?

The Agency for Prevention of Corruption exercises control and supervision over the election campaign in a planned and systematic manner. Within ten days from the date of announcing the election, the Agency adopts a Control and Supervision Plan, which defines the activities that this institution will carry out towards political entities, authorities and other subjects to the Law, with the aim of efficient and full implementation of the competences prescribed by the Law on Financing of Political Entities and Election Campaigns.

The plan also contains a risk assessment and activities that include regular, proactive checks of compliance with the law by subjects to the law, and it determines the authorities and political entities that will control the implementation of the rules and compliance with the prohibitions and restrictions prescribed by the Law.

All information, data, reports and minutes are regularly published on the Agency's website and made available to the public.

It is particularly important to note that the Agency, in accordance with the adopted Methodology, performs essential control over the activities, collected and spent funds of political entities in the campaign, in a way that regularly collects data on the activities of all political entities, including documentation, invoices and contracts from service providers that monitor these activities. At the end, the completeness and accuracy of the submitted Reports of political entities on collected and spent funds from public and private sources for the election campaign are checked.

In what way does the Agency contribute to the transparency of the electoral process?

The purpose of the effective implementation of the Control and Supervision Plan and the Agency's proactive approach is to strengthen the integrity and credibility of the campaign, as well as citizens' trust in the election process.

Full transparency of the use of public resources is ensured through the availability of all relevant data, i.e. ensuring the availability of all issued travel orders, employment and engagement of persons and total spending of budget units at the state and local level in accordance with the Law. It is important to point out the new analytics that are available on the Agency's website, which allows searching for information on employment and engagement of persons in the campaign.

In addition, data on collected and spent funds of political entities during the election campaign, service providers and controls by the Agency are also available on our website. For the purpose of better transparency, special search tools have been developed for data on income from private and public sources, political subjects and submitted reports. The agency contributes to transparency and ensuring the availability of all data obtained by monitoring and controlling the activities of political entities in the campaign. In this regard, an interactive map has been developed, where, before the end of the election campaign, the location, images and basic information about billboards and advertising boards in the territory of Montenegro on which political entities are advertised will be available.

What are the Agency's results in the control and supervision of the election campaign for the local elections that will be held on October 23?

First of all, the transparency and availability of all data and reports on the use of public resources by authorities and the collected and spent funds of political entities in the campaign is ensured.

Due to the observed irregularities in the reports of the authorities, 882 warnings were sent, after which all the irregularities were eliminated or the documentation was supplemented, while due to the identified irregularities and violations of the law, 106 misdemeanor proceedings were initiated against the responsible persons in the authorities. A total of 12 authorities were inspected on the ground, while the inspection of the prescribed limit of monthly spending for September is in progress, as well as the inspection of the delivery of contracts on employment and engagement of persons in the campaign.

When it comes to the current election campaign, a total of 100 political entities are participating in it. 38 out of the planned 52 entities were inspected on the ground. So far, a total of 217 reports have been submitted in the campaign and a total of 67 activities of political entities have been controlled in the amount of €57,476.

What are the challenges that the Agency faces in the current campaign?

The Agency has repeatedly cited the need to change regulations in this area, and the inconsistency of the Law on Financing of Political Entities and Election Campaigns with the Law on Misdemeanors and the Law on Election of Councilors and Members of Parliament. For this purpose, analyzes were made and recommendations for further improvement were given. The undefined status of coalitions and groups of voters in the campaign, i.e. the absence of misdemeanor liability, changes in the defined limits of expenses for entities due to changes in the budget and thus changes in the amount of allocated funds for financing the campaign, defined duration of the election campaign, the participation of third parties in the campaign and the lack of prescribed proportionate and deterrent sanctions do not contribute to strengthening trust in the electoral system and to a certain extent prevent the full application of the law and the control of the financing of political entities and election campaigns that we carry out.

As confirmation of the insufficient legal framework, it is necessary to underline that, despite the fact that the Agency, in accordance with the adopted methodologies and plans, controls the financing of political entities, it is not possible to initiate misdemeanor proceedings against coalitions or groups of voters in cases of established violations of the law. In addition, there is no prescribed sanction, i.e. misdemeanor liability, if incorrect and incomplete data is submitted in the final reports of political entities on the funds collected and spent in the campaign.

In the media, the issue of employment was discussed during the election campaign.

Article 44 of the Law on Financing of Political Entities and Election Campaigns prescribes the limitation of employment of persons for a certain period of time, that is, the conclusion of contracts for the performance of temporary and occasional jobs in government bodies, in the period from the day of the announcement to the day of the election. The exception is that this is possible solely for the purpose of ensuring the smooth and regular development and functioning of the work process of those bodies, based on the decision of the competent body of these entities and only if this is provided for in the act on the systematization of workplaces.

It should be emphasized that Article 44 of the Law does not prescribe a ban on employment to fill vacant positions provided for by the current rulebook on systematization, both for a fixed and indefinite period.

I would like to remind you that the prescribed restrictions and obligations of submitting decisions on employment and engagement of persons concluded during the election campaign do not apply to state-owned companies, i.e. owned by local governments.

The topic of media advertising of the campaign on media registered in other countries, more precisely, on TV Pink M, was also problematic. What is the Agency's position?

Carrying out control and supervision of the campaign for the parliamentary elections held in August 2020, the Agency made a statement on the matter. "Pink Media M" is not recognized as an entity that provides media advertising services for the campaign. On August 14, 2020, our institution turned to the Agency for Electronic Media, which seven days later declared that it did not issue approval for broadcasting either television or radio programs to the company "Pink media M", and that this company does not have the status of a broadcaster in terms of the Law on Electronic Media.

The position of the Agency for Prevention of Corruption is that this is another legal gap, which must be taken into account when reforming the electoral legislation.