termining and memorizing the conditions in which persons deprived of their freedom are accommodated. Organizational set-up and budget of the National Preventive Mechanism 1. The National Preventive Mechanism operates within the Ombudsman Institution as a separate team with clearly defined competencies for actions in accordance with the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture. 2. The National Preventive Mechanism functions as a team composed of one state counsellor and two torture prevention counsellors, and in order to provide a multidisciplinary approach in conducting preventive visits it uses external associates, that is, experts from different fields and representatives of professional associations and civil society organizations with which it has concluded memoranda on cooperation. 3. As part of the multiannual cooperation with the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees, some of the visits to the places of accommodation and detention of migrants and refugees were conducted by temporarily engaged persons implementing the project “Improving of the legal protection system relating to asylum and statelessness.” 4. The National Preventive Mechanism, as a separate team, has a special budget item within the budget of the Ombudsman at its disposal, through which it directly decides on its needs and thus ensures operational and functional independence in its actions. 5. During the reporting year, the NPM team had a budget of 800,000.00 denars, which included funds for hiring external associates, as well as the costs for publishing the annual report from the previous year. 6. At the end of 2019, the NPM team for the implementation of activities in 2020 designed a budget framework in the amount of 1,225,000.00 denars, and the authorities approved 675,000.00 denars. 7. The budget approved in this way is the lowest compared to the budgets of the national preventive mechanisms in the region, due to which the Ombudsman still maintains that the exercise of the competencies of the National Preventive Mechanism requires additional www. ombudsman.mk 15