The Minister of Public Administration, Suzana Pribilović, chaired a constituent session of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) Operational Team, which agreed on activities in order to further work and preparation of the Action Plan in relevant areas.

The meeting also agreed on activities aimed at involving the general public (citizens and the businesses) in the process of proposing activities and projects. It was concluded that citizens should be involved through the eParticipation mechanism and other tools in the process of drafting the Action Plan.

Minister Pribilović emphasized that the principles of the Open Government Partnership are complementary to the principles of public administration reform – transparency, public participation, public accountability, and innovation. She pointed out that one of the goals of the public administration reform is an open and transparent public administration directed towards the citizen, and that in this sense it is very important to involve the citizens in this process.

The Action Plan will include measures and activities in the field of providing public services, public participation, fiscal transparency, public administration integrity, access to information, open data, etc. By the end of the year, Montenegro should develop an action plan that is the most important component of a country’s participation in the OGP initiative.

Open Government Partnership (OGP) is a voluntary international initiative launched in 2011, which promotes multilateral cooperation, supports and promotes the development of openness, transparency and accountability of the administration through open cooperation of the state administration representatives, primarily with civil society, but also with other segments of the society, with the aim of promoting and increasing transparency, combating corruption and actively involving and strengthening the participation of citizens and the civil sector in creating of public policies. Montenegro joined the OGP on February 13, 2012, and signed the declaration on open government as a participating country.

The members of the team are representatives of the Government, five representatives of the NGO sector, as well as the Chamber of Commerce of Montenegro.