Milovac (MANS): Montenegro’s institutions keep hiding behind silence and secrecy stamps

As Vijesti reports in an interview published today, Dejan Milovac, deputy executive director of the Network for Affirmation of the NGO Sector (MANS), warns that the public’s right to know in Montenegro keeps running into institutional silence, secrecy stamps and multi-year procedures — while a document has its greatest value precisely when the public can still react.

According to Milovac, MANS has proven this through concrete investigations: documentation obtained through free access to information was used in checking the assets and income of former ANB official and police functionary Duško Golubović, while in the case of Petar Lazović, data on employment and salaries were requested to compare with documented assets — but the ANB again refused to hand over the data, after nearly five years of proceedings at several court instances.

He emphasizes that the administration’s silence remains the simplest way to wear down citizens: in 2025 alone, MANS filed 1,804 complaints over the administration’s silence. According to MANS data for 2026, the bodies that most often stay silent are the Interior Ministry, the Health Ministry, the ANB, the Public Administration Ministry, the General Secretariat and the Prime Minister’s Cabinet; the secrecy stamp is most often invoked by the ANB and the Defense Ministry.

Milovac says the new law greatly expands what institutions must publish on their own — from the budget and public procurement to the composition of commissions, officials’ salaries and registers — but many institutions still treat documentation as their own property. He stresses that today, on the International Day for Universal Access to Information, is the moment to remember that without access to facts there is neither serious control of power nor an effective fight against corruption and organized crime.