Cooperation against corruption

Centre for Civic Education (CCE) today signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with the Supreme Court of Montenegro, the Ministry of Justice and the Supreme State Prosecution in order to implement the project “Monitoring of court cases related to corruption offenses”.

The Memorandum is an expression of understanding of all parties that for the purpose of establishing the rule of law, an active participation, more direct cooperation and coordination of all segments of society in the fight against corruption is needed. In addition, it underlines the importance of the monitoring by civil society with the objective of having judicial and prosecutorial organizations as responsible, professional, efficient and transparent.

The purpose of the Memorandum is to determine the modes of cooperation, coordination and exchange of information during the project implementation. The overall objective of this project is to contribute to reducing the level of corruption in Montenegro through its effective prosecution. In particular, the project will assess judicial efficiency in processing anti-corruption cases and raise awareness among the general public as well as legal and media professionals of the problem of corruption and the existing anti-corruption mechanisms.

This project should result in: establishment of communication and cooperation channels with the authorities in charge for processing corruption cases; monitoring of the efficiency, impartiality and fairness of the Montenegrin judiciary and other stakeholders (engaged lawyers, media) in processing corruption cases; raised awareness among the general public as well as legal and media professionals of corruption problem and existing anti-corruption mechanisms; recommendations for improvement of the legislation, mechanisms and procedures in place, as well as media reporting in a final report. The project implementation is being supported by the Netherlands Embassy.

The Memorandum was signed by Stanka Vučinić, Deputy President of the Supreme Court, Branko Lakočević, Deputy Minister of Justice, Veselin Vučković, Deputy Supreme State Prosecutor and Daliborka Uljarević, Executive Director of the Centre for Civic Education.

Damir Nikočević, PR/Programme Associate