IRZ with the organiser of the 14th National Anti-Corruption Conference in Montenegro

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Published: February 18, 2022

The 14th National Anti-Corruption Conference was held in Podgorica (Montenegro) from 9-10 December 2021 as a hybrid event.

The main organiser was the non-governmental organisation "Network for the Strengthening of the Non-Governmental Sector MANS". Other co-organisers were the IRZ and the EU delegation, the embassy of Italy, the Netherlands and the United States and the NGOs "The National Endowment for Democracy (NED)" and the "Balkan Tender Watch Coalition”.

The Prime Minister of the country, Zdravko Krivokapić, and various foreign ambassadors opened the event with words of welcome; a gesture that underpinned the importance attached to the anti-corruption conference.

The first day of the event was dedicated to the topic "Financing of political parties and elections", the second day to the confiscation of property. There were various panels on both topics, which brought together national experts and representatives of NGOs, the OSCE and the Council of Europe. An exchange of experiences also took place between international practitioners.

The IRZ has supported the conference for roughly five years, and Senior Public Prosecutor Dr. Gunnar Greier, who is also a lecturer at the University of Cologne and a specialist author of books on the subject, has worked as an expert in various international projects, and reported on the German experience with confiscation of assets for the IRZ.

In addition to the constitutionality of regulations on the confiscation of assets, the discussion also focused on the question of how appropriate investigative units can be organised in a relatively small state with limited human resources. In connection with corruption in general, some of the participants also stated that the Montenegrin rules on an understanding in criminal procedural law had meant that the facts of the case were not clarified, particularly in cases where prominent persons were suspected of corruption.

This year too, the event attracted broad national and international media interest, and was also broadcast via Facebook.

The national language programs of Radio Free Europe reported on the event among others: https://www.slobodnaevropa.org/a/crna-gora-korupcija/31601761.html and Al Jazeera Balkans https://balkans.aljazeera.net/news/2021/12/9/krivokapic-u-crnoj-gori-sve-lezi-u-parama and various nationwide media

https://www.vijesti.me/vijesti/politika/579778/krivokapic-u-cg-sve-lezi-u-parama-ako-budemo-isli-putem-resetovanja-iskazane-volje-gradjana-bicemo-u-problemu

More information:

Network for the strengthening of the non-governmental sector MANS: http://www.mans.co.me/en/