The decision of the Prime Minister of Montenegro Zdravko Krivokapić to refuse to appear at the control hearing at the Security Committee is an elementary disrespect of the parliamentary institution and is on the verge of legality because it derogates from the control role of the Parliament over the executive power, Pobjeda writes.
This is the second refusal of Krivokapić in the last two months to appear at the control hearing scheduled by the Security Committee.
No cooperation
For the first time, Krivokapić refused to come to the control hearing of the Assembly Committee regarding the initiative to restart cigarette smuggling through the Port of Bar.
The initiative for the control hearing was submitted by the president of the Movement for Changes, Nebojsa Medojevic, and the reason was the estimates of the Western security agencies that as much as 20 percent of smuggled cigarettes in the EU go through the Port of Bar.
Last Thursday, for the second time, the Prime Minister refused to come to the scheduled control hearing due to his earlier statement that his arrest was being prepared after he was supposed to sign a fundamental agreement with the Serbian Orthodox Church in Belgrade on March 27.
Which is really a legal obligation
The Law on Parliamentary Oversight in Defense and Security states precisely that “parliamentary oversight includes consultative hearings, control hearings and parliamentary investigations” and that they are referred to by responsible government representatives.
“The control hearing is organized and conducted in order to obtain opinions and gather information from the scope of work of the Committee and when there is a need to remove ambiguities, dilemmas, principled disputes and clarify current issues in the implementation of policy and law or other activities of the Government and state administration bodies. areas of security and defense. The decision on the control hearing is made by the Board by a majority vote of all members. Responsible representatives of the Government or other state administration body are invited to the session, as well as other persons whose presence is necessary to clarify the matter in question”, it is stated in Article 9 of the Law, which is the legal basis for the invitation to Krivokapić.
The law also stipulates the obligatory cooperation of all state bodies in the process that accompanies the control hearing.
“State and other bodies, institutions, legal entities and natural persons are obliged to provide data and information from the scope of their competence in connection with parliamentary oversight and to inform the Committee on the measures taken to implement the conclusions and recommendations. The decision of the majority of members of the Board may, if necessary, conduct supervision of any body or institution referred to in Article 3 paragraph 1 of this Law or its organizational unit in the territory of Montenegro, with prior notice of not less than 24 hours. the law.
Which means that Krivokapić or a responsible member of the Government had to appear at the hearing.
Scandalous explanation
That is why the explanation of Prime Minister Krivokapić, when he refused to appear before the Committee – that he received information about his potential arrest from a reliable source, and that he does not want to name him – is at least scandalous.
According to the law, the Prime Minister has only two relevant sources – the Ministry of Interior and the National Security Agency, institutions whose obligation is to closely monitor and provide senior state officials, but also to collect all relevant information.
In his addresses, the Prime Minister did not refer to state institutions, so his statement is obviously targeting the Chief Special Prosecutor Milivoje Katnić. By announcing that his arrest was being prepared, Krivokapić formally suspected the special prosecutor of preparing a coup d'etat. That is why the obligation of the Prime Minister was to submit evidence or at least indications for such claims.
On two occasions, Katnić sharply denied Krivokapić, stating that he was not even within the scope of work of the Special Prosecutor's Office.
The Law on Parliamentary Oversight in Defense and Security states precisely that the representative of the Government is obliged to provide deputies with all relevant information, and that the obligation of deputies is to keep that information in accordance with the law.
Prime Minister Krivokapić, as it seems, respects only the rules and laws that I, in the process, prescribe. And only for himself.
Members of the Prime Minister's Office followed in the same footsteps. Apart from Krivokapić, Ministers Milojko Spajić, Jelena Borovinić Bojović and Vesna Bratić have not appeared before the competent committees in the last two months, and in the latter case she justified her absence by deteriorating health.
Djukanovic was questioned twice before the committees of the Assembly
During his term as Prime Minister, President Milo Đukanović was questioned twice before the competent committees of the Assembly: once in the Security Committee in 2016, and the second time before the Inquiry Committee regarding the Telecom case in 2012.
In both cases, Djukanovic answered all questions, and the hearing before the Telecom Case Inquiry Committee lasted more than five hours. The leader of the New Serbian Democracy, Andrija Mandic, was at the head of that committee at the time.