Accountability

“Accountability is coming”

The practice of incorporating unrelated amendments into proposed legislation tabled in Parliament, particularly when it involves last-minute adjustments that serve obvious political self-interest, like those reducing the powers of local government, represents a continual erosion of the quality of parliamentary governance. 

The numerous out-of-control fires in many parts of Greece in recent days have turned the spotlight back on the enduring problems of the state machinery and failures to address them adequately.

Given that the ruling conservatives are into their fifth year at the helm and these glaring shortcomings remain, the inevitable political cost to the government cannot be overstated.

Events rarely do political planning any favors. They have a way of blindsiding decision-makers and overturning even the best-laid plans. Before taking office again, the government's top officials had emerged from a long period of successive crises and two election campaigns. Then the wildfires came. 

Slovenian judges and prosecutors will benefit from a substantial increase in their base pay under a deal reached with the government after the Constitutional Court found judge pay is so low it jeopardises judicial independence.

The empirical and academic literature shows that good management of public organizations, such as universities, requires that they must be accountable to taxpayers and society in the same way that a corporate governance framework provides accountability for the shareholders of corporations/companies.

The Chinese trust their government the most

Prime Minister of Montenegro, Zdravko Krivokapi, could decide on the election of the President of the Administrative Court at the session of the Judicial Council on February 25, several lawyers told Vijesti yesterday, while the Judicial Council did not provide an answer whether this could be disputable.

Ljubljana – Slovenian election rules have not been adjusted to the Covid reality yet, says the newspaper Večer on Friday, noting that less than 100 days before the general election, voters should not only be informed of the date of the vote but also of quarantine-related technicalities.

Bled – A two-day Conference of Chief Justices of Central and Eastern Europe, which focussed on the independence of judiciary at the institutional level and the level of judges, concludes in Bled on Tuesday. Supreme Court president Damijan Florjančič said new situations challenging this were emerging all the time.