Podgorica, (MINA) – In the first six months of this year, MPs in the Montenegrin parliament spent EUR 212,769 on official trips, while more than EUR 1 million has been spent for this purpose since the current parliamentary convocation was constituted at the end of July 2023.
This was shown by the analysis by the Center for Civic Education (CGO), which, as they announced, builds on the earlier findings of its previous research.
CGO program associate Nikola Djurasevic said that their new analysis shows that 888 official trips by Montenegrin parliament MPs were recorded in less that three years.
“These trips cost the citizens of Montenegro a total of EUR 1,010,904”, said Djurasevic.
He also pointed out that information about the specific results of those trips is not systematically available to the public.
Pejovic with the highest expenses, Camaj with most trips
Djurasevic said that during the first six months of this year, the largest individual expenditure was recorded by a Special MPs club MP Jevrosima Pejovic, who, as stated, spent EUR 19,876 on official trips during that period.
She is followed by Nikola Camaj from the Albanian Forum, whose 16 trips cost EUR 12,765.80.
“Parliament Speaker Andrija Mandic had two trips recorded for the first six months (Monaco and Ljubljana), at a cost of EUR 358.26”, stated Djurasevic.
PES at first position in total expenses
According to Djurasevic, among the parliamentary clubs, the most money in the first half of the year was spent on trips of PES MPs, EUR 38,628.46 for 31 trips, followed by BS with 21 trips and a cost of EUR 28,116.07, and NSD with 27 trips and EUR 22,987.52.
Djurasevic pointed out that CGO believes that more than EUR 212,000 spent on official trips in just six months, as well as the more than EUR 1 million during the current convocation of the Parliament, require a significantly higher level of transparency about the purpose and results of those trips.
He said that official trips are a legitimate and necessary part of parliamentary work, especially in the fields of international cooperation, European integration and parliamentary diplomacy.
“However, every official trip must have a clear purpose, a justified public interest and publicly available data on the achieved results”, Djurasevic pointed out.
