Wonderful developments are taking place in Montenegro on public policy dialogue between the highest level of senior officials from the Supreme Audit Institution, the Ministry of Finance, Parliament and civil society representatives. These discussions are focusing on the internal and external financial control mechanisms of public institutions and the role Montenegrin civil society organizations are playing – in holding government accountable on revenues and expenditures.
This was the first time I participated in such discussions where civil society organizations played a key role in raising issues and making recommendations to the Government – after obviously having done their homework.
This day-long event was organized by UNDP and Montenegro’s institut alternativa. The institute, among few civil society organizations that specialize in research and development on public sector reform, public accountability and public policy dialogue issues led the way, bringing together key players from the Government to discuss where Montenegro was heading, as it prepares to join the EU – negotiations on the first chapters have already begun.
I think Montenegro’s civil society organizations are up to something where other neighbouring countries have lagged behind – grass roots level participation, including the media, to enter into constructive dialogue on transparency, accountability and anti-corruption.
The key to these civil society organizations’ credibility is their research and development capacities, and doing their homework: accessing financial data and information from public sources, building the capacity to analyze this information and specializing on a subject-matter – in this instance the role of external and internal audit in public financial management and control.
This is a tall order for nascent civil society organizations, but they are venturing into a territory long held only by government institutions. These civil society organizations are pragmatic, and are learning by doing.
For instance, while they are conducting in-depth research on public financial management, they are also providing consulting services to ministries, local governments and other public institutions on effective public policy implementation. Some of the best-positioned and well-resourced civil society organizations, such as alternativa, can counter any public institution and even excel, with their academic research, publications and citizen engagement.
We discussed how UNDP can help scale-up research and public dialogue. With Montenegro’s Supreme Audit Institution we would like them to graduate from basic financial (revenue and expenditure) audit, to environmental, performance, IT and other audit fields. We are going to investigate other partnership opportunities with EU member countries and also connect them with UNDP in Serbia, which has initiated some innovative programmes with Serbia’s Supreme Audit Institution.
With civil society organizations, we discussed how social media can play a role in broadening knowledge and sharing information with the wider Montenegrin citizenry.
It is impressive to see how the EU accession drive is helping this little country to put its financial public house in order with the participation of its active civil society organizations and citizens.
Way to go Montenegro.
Tags: accountability, Annie Demirjian, audit, citizen engagement, civil society, democracy, EU, finance, financial management, institut alternativa, Montenegro, public policy, Serbia, social media
Pingback: Institut Alternativa » Blog Archive » “How it should be: Civil society and Government partner on financial accountability”