Draft law on temporary maintance of children

Today in the Parliament of Montenegro we presented the Draft Law on Temporary Child Support, thanks to the cooperation with the @ Women’s Club of the Parliament of Montenegro. This Draft Law determines the conditions and regulates the procedure for exercising the right to temporary maintenance of children, competence, records, financing, as well as the establishment of the Alimony Fund and other issues of importance for exercising temporary maintenance.

Under the conditions determined by this law, the state provides the funds necessary for the maintenance of the child, in order to timely eliminate harmful consequences in cases where the parent or debtor does not fully or partially meet the maintenance obligation determined by the executive document. The draft provides for a simplified decision-making procedure and guarantees that the child will have exactly the amount of maintenance that has already been determined on the basis of all relevant evidence in the court proceedings, ie in accordance with the agreement on the exercise of parental rights concluded in accordance with the provisions of the Family Law

The proposed decision entrusts the authority for the implementation of the procedure for exercising the right to temporary maintenance to the guardianship authority (Center for Social Work), while the supervision over the legality of the guardianship authority is entrusted to the ministry responsible for social welfare. In that way, the procedure is simplified and the total costs that will be provided through the adequate distribution of budget funds to the Center, ie the competent ministry, are reduced.

The proposed solution envisages keeping a single record, which will enable their availability in one place through the database of evidence and data that are important for exercising the right to temporary maintenance, which will also simplify the procedure, affect the efficient functioning of the entire procedure and reduce overall costs. The Alimony Fund, as a special budget (spending) unit, would not have the status of a legal entity, ie it would not be a special state body or public institution. In this case, the structure and number of administrative organizations in the public administration system in Montenegro would not be further complicated, which would be in the context of growing aspirations to rationalize the structure of public administration.

The proposed solution for financing temporary subsistence allows funds to be provided from other sources in addition to the state budget, which will enable the state to dispose of funds collected through several modalities listed in the Draft Law. Namely, the establishment of the Alimony Fund will create financial conditions for an efficient response of the state in fulfilling the obligation of temporary maintenance, and with the right to recourse, the state will provide the necessary funds for the payment of temporary maintenance by collecting from the maintenance debtor.

In addition to the proposed functioning of the Fund, guaranteeing safe and reliable maintenance for each child, these collection mechanisms would force all irresponsible parents to perform their duties towards their children much more efficiently, and the state would completely release parents who take care of children from long lawsuits and uncertainty as to whether their child will receive support. The drafting of the law was made possible by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

You can watch a video of the event here: