This paper serves as a background assessment in preparation of legislative proposals supported by MANS. The new Law on Financing of Political Entities and Election Campaigns (LFPEEC), in force since 1 January 2015, has advanced the legislative framework in Montenegro for political finance. However, serious shortcomings remain:
– The LFPEEC legalises unlimited in-kind contributions by foreign entities to Montenegrin political parties for their ordinary media and public campaigns.
– There are no sanctions at all for natural or legal persons providing (prohibited) foreign funds to a Montenegrin party, whether for media campaigns or any other activity.
– Enforcement powers of the Agency (for Prevention of Corruption) are weak. For example, it cannot enforce demands for data from private natural or legal persons.
– Accountability of the Agency to the public lacks in terms of responding to complaints (“What concretely happened to citizens’ complaints?”).
– Transparency is weak regarding publishing internal regulations, standards of financial reports, accountability for reporting (“signature”), and media discounts.
– Statutes of limitations are extraordinarily short (2 years); this de facto legalises most minor and more serious violations.
– Administrative sanctions are missing for failure to cooperate with the Agency, for providing foreign funding and for false accounting.
– Criminal offences are missing almost entirely, in particular for providing significant amounts of prohibited donations, for significantly exceeding spending limits, and for false accounting regarding significant amounts.
– The most effective administrative sanction of reimbursement of public funds is missing or in case of inaccurate statement of accounts.
Most of above mentioned shortcomings stand in direct contradiction to international standards, in particular the OSCE/ODIHR/Venice Commission Guidelines. This aside, all above mentioned shortcomings compare weakly to good practices of other countries. Therefore, each section of the paper contains concrete legislative proposals in order to remedy the shortcomings. It should go without saying that proper independence of the Agency and political will for implementing norms are preconditions for all legislative proposals to work.
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