Legal Initiatives
team
deals with administrative procedures in public administration, conducts strategic litigation for cases related to freedom of information, mobilizes citizens to use their rights to information and provides them with free legal assistance. The program services other MANS programs with information on monitoring indicators from relevant public institutions obtained on the basis of freedom of information legislation.
Activies 2010
Legal Initiatives
Institutions published 36% of information upon nearly 6.000 FOI requests; over 2.000 appeals submitted to supervisory institutions resulted with 50% of favorable decisions; more than 1.800 cases were initiated at the Administrative Court, 53% of them were resolved out of which 64% of court rulings were in favor of MANS;
Docume
nts that were previously declared as confidential by the authorities are available to public due to our strategic litigation followed by advocacy campaign, including the Responses of the Government to the EU Questionnaire; the Contract between the Police and a telecommunication company allowing the Police to illegally collect data on individuals; and the Agreement between owners of the largest company in Montenegro – the Aluminum Plant of Podgorica (KAP) and the Government on over 300 million euro subsidies;
Reduced duration of court proceedings for cases of silence of administration from average five months to two months needed for a verdict to be brought, due to extensive submission of cases by MANS;
Police Directorate, the largest public institution in Montenegro and most frequently denying or ignoring FOI request reduced silence of administration from 36% in 2009 to 17%;
The Government withdrawn changes of Law limiting access to information from the Parliament’s procedure following our media campaign and participation in debate if front of the responsible committee of the Parliament.
