Agency for Prevention of Corruption

Three new lobbyists in the Agency for Prevention of Corruption

During July 2018, three more persons received their approvals to perform lobbying activities and are registered in the Lobbyist Registry of the Agency for Prevention of Corruption, which contains five lobbyists in total.
July 25, 2018

The Agency, since January 1st 2016, have made twenty public announcements for candidates to apply for the examination for performing lobbying activities.

Seven examination sessions had been held, 14 candidates passed, seven of them during 2018. The possibility to file the application for the registration in the Lobbyist Registry is available to all the candidates the Agency has issued the certificate on the completion of the examination for performing the lobbying activities.

The Agency reminds that lobbying can exclusively be performed by the persons registered in the Agency’s Lobbyist Registry and that the performance of these activities by any unregistered lobbyist is illegal and subject to misdemeanour proceedings.

In order to strengthen public awareness about lobbying as an anti-corruption mechanism and attract a greater number of candidates to take the exam for performing lobbying activities, the Agency continually conducts informative anti-corruption campaign on this topic.

In Montenegro, the area of lobbying is regulated by the Law on Lobbying, which prescribes the conditions and the way of performing lobbying activities, rules of lobbying and other important matters. The basic principles of this Law are publicity and the protection of the public interest, integrity, prevention of conflicts of interest and the transparency of lobbying.

The Law defines lobbying as an activity aimed at influencing legislative and executive authorities at the state or local level and other authorities in the procedure of adopting regulations and other general acts, from the competence of the these authorities, in order to achieve the interests of the ordering party.

One of the important conditions for the improvement of transparency in terms of lobbying is the establishment of a public lobbyist registry. The Law on Lobbying envisages that the registry of lobbyists and legal persons who perform lobbying activities in Montenegro is kept by the Agency for Prevention of Corruption. The Lobbyist Registry is available on the Agency’s website www.antikorupcija.me.

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