The draft Law on the MP’s Code of Ethics and Conduct in Parliament, which was put forward by a group of lawmakers, contains provisions that run counter to the principle of respect for the human rights, said experts of the Center for the Analysis and Prevention of Corruption that appraised the bill.
In a news conference at IPN, expert Mariana Kalughin said that under the bill, the MPs can be penalized by an ethics committee, but the notification can be submitted only by the lawmakers. Earlier, civil society proposed that the people should also be allowed to inform about cases of deviations, but the proposal was rejected.
Mariana Kalughin also said that the bill does not ensure the principle of transparency as regards the method of promoting it. Also, the economy and financial arguments are not enough.
The experts also established that the bill does not contain provisions that would enable to monitor the process of implementing the norms provided in the code. It also does not institute a mechanism for taking into consideration the monitoring results. There are no clear provisions that would oblige the ethics commissioner, the legal commission for appointments and immunities and Parliament to make public the results of the investigations into the violations committed by MPs.
The appraisal was carried out by CAPC with the financial support of the Civil Rights Defenders of Sweden. It emphasized the necessity of prompting the bill, but with some improvements. The people’s access to informing the ethics commissioner about the deviations committed by lawmakers should be ensured.
