At the constitutive meeting of the Agency Council, he stressed several important aspects of ting up of such an agency, the news agency Mina carried.
“First, prevention of the corruption is as important as sanctioning the one that has already occurred,” he explained.
According to him, the task of the agency is the control, and the implementation of the election legislation.
“The implementation of the election legislation is one of the measures which we expect political stability of,” Mr Drobnic said.
He said that the EU Delegation was closely following the establishment of the agency, stressing that it took time to get it started working efficiently and producing results. He also wished the members of the Council success in the work.
“Since your success will be an indicator for us that things are moving in a positive direction, and it will produce positive effects to the process of the EU integration of Montenegro,” Mr Drobnic said.
The Speaker of the Parliament, Ranko Krivokapic, said that it was very important who would the Council appoint as the Director of the Agency.
“That should be a person with unquestionable professional, moral and human qualities, who can guarantee with his/her past for the work in the future,” said Krivokapic.
He stressed that there was a big challenge before the Council, adding that the Parliament would follow its work.
“You are the ones who are accountable to us before the Agency Director, because you perform control at the current level, and we perform control at the system level”, Mr Krivokapic said.
He also said that it was easier to require results than to achieve them, adding that corruption in Montenegro became a systemic problem.
“When those problems are at a higher level, then they represent an individual issue. When you get deeply into the system, from the counter in the municipality to the Health Fund and on, then it is a systemic problem. I am afraid it has become a systemic problem here”, Mr Krivokapic said.
Therefore, he said, an action should start at all levels.
“NATO and the EU require an action against the high-level corruption, but I believe such a lack of culture must be broken at the local level,” Mr Krivokapic said.
According to him, it is easier for citizens to accept dozens or hundreds of millions disappearing at a high level, because it seems abstract to them.
“But, at the counters, in the sectors of urbanism, health care and education, they face the corruption every day, and you have to go there, along with other authorities,” Mr Krivokapic concluded.
On June 26th the MPs elected Vanja Calovic, Ristana Stijepovic, Radula Zuric, Goranka Vucinic and Bojan Obrenovic as the members of the Council.
The members are elected for four year term and they cannot be elected more than twice for that position.
