The president of the Council of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, Mr. Momčilo Radulović, the director of the Agency, Ms. Jelena Perović and Assistant Director, Mr. Boris Vukašinović met today with the President of the Parliament of Montenegro, Ms. Danijela Đurović.

Emphasizing the readiness and openness of the Parliament for broad cooperation in all spheres of essential importance for the improvement of issues that the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption deals with and which are within the scope of the Parliament's work, President Đurović noted that our society is unfortunately recognized as an environment that includes corruption on numerous levels of functioning, and that it is a noticeable and fundamentally important problem that we as a community must systematically change, fix and overcome. President Đurović pointed out that solving this issue is one of the necessary assumptions that Montenegro must insist on in the coming period, in order to achieve strategically important internal and foreign policy goals.

In this context, the President assessed that the achievement of valid institutional cooperation at all levels is an important precondition for reaching the European aspirations of our country, and expressed readiness of the Parliament, as well as her personally, to make a maximum contribution in this field.

The President referred to some of the current legal solutions, and expressed her expectation and belief that in the following period, through corrections of those segments that proved to be inadequate and dysfunctional in practice, better solutions will be reached, which requires a wider political consensus and willingness to agreement.

Presenting the work and achievements of the Agency, the president of the Council of the Agency, Mr. Momčilo Radulović, assessed that the set of implemented reforms placed the Agency among successful institutions, which “managed to make reforms complying with the best European practices and be an example of the success of such processes”.

Pointing out that the Agency advocates broad and significant inter-institutional cooperation in solving issues in the field of prevention of corruption, Mr. Radulović emphasized that the Agency considers that the parliament is the starting and ending point in these processes. Stating that there were difficulties in cooperation with the previous parliament convocation, he expressed the expectation that in the coming period the relationship between the Agency and the Parliament will be significantly improved.

Speaking about the set of legal solutions, that is, the expected amendments in the area of ​​prevention of corruption, the director of the Agency, Ms. Jelena Perović, stated that she expects the Parliament to give its contribution so that “the legal text is of high quality and valid”. She additionally pointed to the importance and necessity of establishing a new advisory body for the fight against corruption at the national level, which would connect the institutions, and enable the weaknesses of the system to be seen from the inside and offer a new Strategy for the fight against corruption in due course, which would provide answers to key questions.

During the meeting, mutual expectation was expressed that the new European Commission Progress Report, which is expected in October 2022, will bring positive assessments when it comes to the work of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption.