In the past six months, the Parliament worked less intensely, and the members of the opposition, 11 of them, continue to boycott the work of the Parliament.
These are some of the conclusions from the Third semi-annual report on the work of Parliament, implemented by MANS as part of the project “Improving of parliamentary monitoring and accountability in Montenegro” supported by the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF).
The report covers the period from November 1, 2018 to April 30, 2019, during which activities of MPs, MPs Groups and the control function of the Parliament were monitored.
From November 1, 2018, to April 30, 2019, 11 sessions were held to discuss 99 laws and other acts.
In the six-month period, MPs spent less than 20 working days at the plenum or a total of 166 hours, with the longest work in November – eight working days, and the shortest in February – only seven hours.
Only 23 MPs actively participated in the work of the plenum, and as much as 30% of the MPs who participated in the work of the Parliament were very rarely active and belong to inactive group of MPs when it comes to work in plenary sessions.
Out of the first five most active MPs, two are from the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Raško Konjević and Ranko Krivokapić. From the Special MPs Group, among most active MPs was Aleksandar Damjanović, while Andrija Popović was most active from Social Democrats and Liberal Party MPs Group (SD and LP). According to activity, Genci Nimanbegu, MP from the MPs Group consisting of Bosniak Party, Coalition “Albanians Decisively” and Croatian Civic Initiative (BS, Coalition “Albanians Decisively” and HGI) is at the fifth place.
The most active MP in the observed period was Raško Konjević (SDP), whose activity index was 4.70, while MPs Nedžad Drešević and Džavid Šabović had an activity index of 0.00, which means that they had no activity at the plenum.
Among MPs Groups, the most active were members of SD and LP, followed by SDP’s MPs Group and the Special MPs Group, which share the second place according to activity, in the third place is DPS, and MPs Group of minority parties in the fourth place. DF MPs Group is next, while SNP-DEMOS MPs Group is the last place.
In the past six months, the Parliament’s committees organized six control and 16 consultative hearings, where 86 people were questioned.
Through the use of control mechanisms, during this reporting period, 28 conclusions were adopted that are binding on the executive authorities and other institutions. However, half of these conclusions are generalized and their implementation cannot be monitored, 46% of conclusions are somewhat measurable, while only 4% define specific obligations of institutions. The parliament has no system of monitoring the implementation of conclusions, which significantly reduces its capacity to perform the constitutional duty when it comes to controlling the work of the executive authorities.
Mirjana Batizić
Parliamentary Programme Assistant
