With the aim of providing support to the development and implementation of information system which would provide more efficient and transparent legislative process and improve the manner of preparation and following of parliamentary acts, three-week long expert mission was organised in the Parliament of Montenegro, in the period 2-20 September 2013.

Main expert working on this project, who stayed in the Parliament of Montenegro for three weeks was Mr Avinash Bikha, independent consultant for parliamentary strategic issues and information technologies, engaged by the Global Centre of the United Nation for Information Technologies, was joined during the third week of the project, during the preparation of the Terms of Reference, by two experts with many-year parliamentary experience - Mr Carlo Marchetti, Head of Information Systems Development Office of the Italian Senate and Ms Eszter Kertesz Gérecz, councillor for implementation of information systems in the Parliament of Hungary.

The expert mission covered the following: analysis of the current state of information procedures in the Parliament of Montenegro, preparation of the strategic framework for development of information and communication system, defining the strategic goals of the Parliament and recommendation for realisation of those, and at the end, preparation of the Terms of Reference for the development and implementation of the legislative information system, as part of the Strategic Framework. The basis for the assessment of the state of play was the Basic foundations for development of the system of information support to the legislative process as well as Initial project task for development of information system, drafted by the Parliamentary Service in 2012.

During the mission, the experts met the Secretary General of the Parliament of Montenegro Mr Damir Davidović in order to consider all issues important for the project, and special attention was paid to implementation of information models, formats and standards considered the most advantageous in information systems.

In addition to that, experts had a series of meetings with representatives of organisation units of the Service, in order to acquire better insight of the state and needs of the development of information system from the aspect of the processes in the Parliament. Employees of the Parliamentary Service worked with members of the expert mission on daily bases, primarily employees of the IT Section.

Following the implementation of several phases, the planned information systems should provide electronic following of the “life-cycle” of each parliamentary act relating the legislative process, in line with the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament of Montenegro and established organisational structure, starting from its reception in the Parliament until permanent archiving. In addition, apart from respecting newest recommendations in this field, the system will enable secure access to parliamentary data for users in the Parliament, MPs and employees in the Service as well as citizens, civil society organisations, public institutions and business organisations.