The citizens of Podgorica whistled for the end and symbolically stopped corruption

Whistle for the end! is a part of the educational and information campaign the Regional Anti-Corruption Initiative is implementing with the financial support of the European Union, as a part of the project “Breaking the Silence: Enhancing the Whistleblowing Policies and Culture in the Western Balkans and Moldova”. Today, we are in Podgorica to raise citizens’ awareness about the damage caused by corruption and the importance of each citizen’s contribution to the fight against corruption.

The regional project “Breaking the Silence: Enhancing the Whistleblowing Policies and Culture in the Western Balkans and Moldova supported by the EU Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA) aims to help partners in the government and non-governmental sector of the beneficiary jurisdictions to improve the disclosure channels and protection mechanisms for whistleblowers; strengthen the capacity of civil society to support whistleblowing; and enhance the public awareness about the importance of whistleblowing in the fight against corruption.

In the framework of the project, the RAI Secretariat works to strengthen the legislative and institutional framework for the protection of whistleblowers, in line with the new EU Directive on whistleblower protection, to which the candidate countries are expected to be aligned as part of the EU acquis within the enlargement process.

On behalf of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, Director Jelena Perovic, who participated in the event, spoke about the important role of citizens in fighting against corruption. “The impressive performance we are witnessing, on one hand, symbolically shows the extent of corruption and its destructive nature, and on the other, it indicates our civic responsibility too, as part of the community, raise our voice against illegal and unethical actions that endanger the public interest.”, Perovic said.

Akvile Normantiene, Political Affairs Officer of the EU Delegation in Montenegro, noted at the event:

“The adequate legislation is the first step to ensure that whistleblowing is recognised as a matter to be entrenched in the law. Enforcement of the law is what shows in practice if this serves the purpose for which it is in place. On the other hand, it is the social and political system that determines if a person is going to blow the whistle in the first place. For this purpose, it is important not only to establish functioning mechanisms for reporting wrongdoing and ensure the protection of whistle-blowers, but also to acknowledge that whistleblowing is an effective mechanism to ensure justice.’’

“With the street performance, we wanted to draw attention to the damage that corruption causes to our society and to the significant role that each person has in the fight against corruption,” said Aneta Arnaudovska, Senior Anti-corruption Advisor of the RAI Secretariat.