A new draft law has been submitted to the Mongolian parliament. Named the Law on Imposing Liability on Selected and Appointed High Ranking Government Officials, the proposed law seeks to define liability for certain high ranking government officials. The draft will first be reviewed and discussed by Parliament before a vote. We are very excited at the current draft and our Mongolian lawyers consider the proposed law, if adopted, to be hugely important to Mongolian public policy and society. The need for the law stems from a feeling among many in the Mongolian public that politicians in the country often to act “Above the Law.” The effects of this official lawlessness are seen and felt by the public through displays of misbehavior and misconduct. In the past, there has not been adequate legislation to clearly identify inappropriate actions by public officials, and impose liability. The new draft is an important attempt to remedy this through new legislation.

To give readers a better idea of the problems facing Mongolia and the provisions in the law which will address these issues, the following are several weak points, or grey areas which the draft law will address.

The disciplinary sanctions set forth in the current Law on Public Service address only the executive branch government hierarchy, while not mentioning Members of Parliament, or those officers directly appointed by and responsible to the Parliament (the Legislative Branch and auxiliaries). Legal grounds for imposing liability on politicians within (the Legislative Branch and auxiliaries) have been absent or unclear at best. However, even grounds for imposing liabilities to the politicians within the government hierarchy carries uncertainty.

While each of the Law on Public Service, the Law on Anti-Corruption, and the Law on Regulation of Public and Private Interests and Prevention of Conflict of Interest in Public Service outline legal grounds to impose liability on officials, these each function as separate stand alone laws without a unified or common approach.  For example, liability under the Law on Public Service only targets administrative, executive, and public service professionals, and specified public officials. Political officers are not included.

Because of these limitations there is no clear body of law to assist in establishing or imposing liability on high ranking “selected” and “appointed” (as opposed to Elected) government officials. Currently, wrongdoing by such officials may only be determined on a case by case basis through a decision of a court, which does not allow for regular and effective enforcement.

In practice there is no regulation providing for the recall of elected officials such as Members of Parliament. The President, the Parliament Speaker, and Members of Parliament may be dismissed or recalled, only where the Constitutional Court of Mongolian issues a ruling that that they have violated the Constitution of Mongolia and must be removed. This is exceptionally difficult as there is no clear standard for establishing such violations in the legal system.

Under current legislation, political liability and means to impose it has not been addressed. Such liability will increase overall levels of responsibility for public officials who may be forced to resign, face recall, or be restricted from nominations for future public office in the event clear guidelines of liability are established. By establishing real legal consequences, the draft law is expected to help promote a culture of greater responsibility for public officials, bringing greater prestige and international respect to Mongolia’s political institutions and public officers.

Political liability is intended to increase the level of responsibility for individual officers by setting clear provisions and requires for resignations, dismissals, recalls and restrictions on rights to be nominated as candidate for specific period for the elected and appointed high ranking officials. In this way the new draft law seeks to establish a culture of self-responsibility and accountability for politicians as an integral part of public service regulation in the well-developed democracy in other countries. To this end the draft law will help to established procedures and a foundation for imposing liability on politicians within (the Legislative Branch and auxiliaries).

By doing so it is hoped that government influence and interference in public society and operations of private companies will be greatly reduced or eliminated.  Come back for our next post which will have an overview of some important provisions in the new draft law.