Centre for Civic Education (CCE) submitted an initiative to the State Supreme Prosecutor Ivica Stanković, aimed to improve the practice of administrative tracking of prosecution cases. During a recent meeting with the CCE representatives, Stanković expressed willingness of Prosecutor’s Office to work on development of internal systems of control, and the initiative itself presents a specific proposal by the CCE, that could contribute to prevention and discovery of corruptive actions within the Prosecutor’s Office.
Starting point of the initiative is in the Rulebook on internal functioning of State Prosecutor’s Office, which contains solid basis, but then again, which needs to be further amended in order to establish practice of a more efficient and effective administrative tracking of prosecution cases and linking of data and persons who work on these cases. The initiative envisages introduction of analytical approach when it comes to case filing, as well as of tracking procedure, discovering and processing links of data and persons in chain handling the prosecution cases. Continuous internal analysis, established in such manner, would be an important mechanism for prevention and suppression of corruption in Prosecutor’s Office. In addition, the implementation of this initiative would enable a better internal control, visibility and transparency of work of Prosecutor’s Office.
Particular motive for submitting this initiative is based on the CCE experience with Prosecutor’s Office, regarding the request for submission of information, for which the CCE estimated that should be systematised and easily available. Namely, the CCE asked for following data: how many anonymous charges did Basic State Prosecution Podgorica receive during 2012, 2013 and 2014; how many anonymous charges had clear grounds for Basic State Prosecution Podgorica to open case and conduct investigations; list of court experts in area of economics and finances hired by Basic State Prosecution Podgorica from January 2011 till December 2013; list of Basic State Prosecution Podgorica prosecutors who hired court experts from area of economics and finances from January 2011 till December 2013. Basic State Prosecution Podgorica rejected these requests with the explanation that Prosecutor’s Office does not have such records!
CCE assesses that there is ample room for corruption precisely in this area within the Prosecutor’s office, which is easy to misuse and that it creates legal insecurity for citizens of Montenegro.
Hence, it is necessary to introduce precise records which process, systemise and link these issues for the prosecutors and their efficiency. That would create necessary conditions for development of multidimensional control systems that would contribute to a more efficient internal control in State Prosecutor’s Office, but also to significantly higher openess and transparency of work of Prosecutor’s Office itself.
Boris Marić, Senior Legal Adviser