This 2019 SIGMA Monitoring Report focuses on selected Principles in the service delivery and public finance management (public procurement) areas of the Principles of Public Administration. Comprehensive assessment of all areas of public administration reform (PAR) in 2017 showed that Montenegro had made gradual progress in many PAR areas, but it also highlighted challenges in the provision of administrative services and the functioning of public procurement, including the effectiveness of the remedies system. This 2019 report first provides an overview of the state of play and main developments for each of the two main areas, followed by detailed analyses of the selected three Principles in the service delivery area and the four Principles focusing on public procurement. The assessment is based on the Methodological Framework for the Principles of Public Administration and covers the July 2017-March 2019 period. Key short-and medium-term recommendations are provided at the end of each section.

Indicator values are compared with the results of the 2017 Monitoring Report. Although this report is part of a regional series, no regional averages are presented for the 2019 indicator values because this round of assessments was designed to perform detailed assessments of a limited number of areas, rather than to carry out full comparative overviews.

The values for the three indicators analysed in the service delivery area all rose, mainly owing to improvements in the policy framework for citizen-oriented service delivery, as well as a smaller share of administrative acts being repealed or changed by the Administrative Court, and the establishment of interoperability among selected basic state registers. Still, the once-only principle stipulated by the Law on Administrative Procedures (LAP) is not being implemented consistently, as evidenced by several examples. Three of the four indicators covering public procurement system functioning remained unchanged, as no significant progress has been made since 2017. Improvements in public procurement efficiency, non-discrimination, transparency and equal treatment are mostly the result of better data availability. Consequently, many recommendations from 2017 are still relevant for 2019 in the public procurement area.